One Week
by butterfly.bones
Summary: "Okay, here's what you do. Resist the urges. Kain, keep it in your pants, Ruka, lock your doors." -rukain-
1. Prelude

_Disclaimer: _Vampire Knight belongs to Hino Matsuri.

* * *

_Don't look ahead, just run to me_

_Each step will find the next one recklessly_

_We'll find ourselves on the safest ledge_

_Well pardon me, I couldn't help myself._

**-x-**

**THE PRELUDE**

**-x-**

Chairman Kurosu calmly hung up the phone.

And dove from his desk.

There was no hesitation. He did not pause. He did not falter. He did not grab his coat, and he almost forgot to open the door. He barreled down the stairs of his on-campus home, darted out the door, and beelined across the Grand Courtyard.

The sun was shining, the wind was humming, the birds were chirping, but the Chairman barely seemed to notice. He did not slow his rapid gait until he was smack dab in front of the gates of the Moon Dorms – hardly an obstacle. He threw open the wrought-iron gates and barged through. Taking a deep breath, and preparing his most ominous and serious voice, he leapt up the steps to the formal entrance in threes, and threw the heavy double oak doors open with inhuman strength.

"Students! Attention! Pack your things! You must be immediately transferred to a new facility!"

Silence.

The main hall of the Moon Dorm mansion was utterly abandoned. The chandelier glimmered, newly dusted, in the middle of the room. The pillows on the couches had been very recently plumped. The carpets and rugs were freshly laundered. The marble floors had been recently scrubbed. It held no signs of human or nonhuman inhabitation. Kurosu remembered that it was Sunday morning, and midday, no less; he kicked himself a little for the lapse in judgment and remembered that it was ridiculous to expect anybody to be up in the _Moon Dorms_ anywhere within a six hour radius of the morning, regardless of what day it was. His harried trek across campus was not to be wasted, though. Undaunted, Kurosu slammed one oak door shut and proceeded to torpedo around, setting records for scandalized vampire shrieks, waking up more people within ten minutes than Ichijou _ever_ could.

The Kain/Aidou suite was greeted by the morning as Kurosu ripped the curtains – and the curtain rod – from the wooden window frames. The Shiki/Ichijou suite was welcomed into the day with two basins brimming with cold water. The Soen/Touya suite was awakened by the banging of what used to be Rima's bedpost against the rapidly disintegrating doorframe. Leaping from door to door, with angry, tired, homicidal teenagers stumbling down the hall in his wake, Kurosu made his way up and down the hall, twice, and quickly gathered every resident, grouchy and sleep-deprived, into the lounge at the atrium. As they settled around the room in barely contained rage, the Chairman restated his prior ejaculation, beamed cheerfully at his cute students, and waited patiently while they turned it over in their sleepy heads.

"What? Why?" Aidou demanded, sprawled inelegantly in a chintz chair. He was the first to successfully run the message through his tired brain and come out with something even close to decipherable. The majority of his dormmates were still dozing off, cross-legged on the carpet.

"Well," Kurosu replied happily, "What do you know, and surprise of surprises, but I just got a call from _your_ mother to check my calendar."

"My mother called you?" Aidou deadpanned, staring incredulously at the impudent sunlight streaming through the still-open doorway. "Why is she _up_?"

"Excellent question, Aidou-kun!" Kurosu beamed, seemingly unaware of the irritating effect his perpetual cheeriness was having on the population of the atrium. "I was rather confused as well, until she asked me quite pleasantly if I intended to do anything about '_it_'. Now, I know what you're all thinking –"

"That it's _two in the afternoon_?"

"– but when I expressed my confusion and desire for further clarification, the lovely source of half your chromosomes suggested that I check my calendar!" Kurosu paused, looking around, and was rewarded with nothing more than a round of annoyed eyes.

"Go on."

"Well," the Chairman continued, unfazed, "I did so, since I am rarely graced with calls from Kaoru-dono, and I ran this curious sequence through my head, and discovered that, what do you know, starting tomorrow, it's the first week of _mating season_."

Loooooooooooooong pause.

"We have a mating season?" Rima rubbed her eye from her belly-down position on the couch.

"I never knew," muttered a male vampire crouching by the coffee table.

"What's a mating season?" said Shiki.

Kurosu paused, thought for a moment.

"When a girl and a boy love each other very much, Senri –"

Shiki made a disgrunted noise and slamed his head into a couch cushion.

"Not that," Rima deadpanned, bleary-eyed and cross.

The Chairman blushed slightly, then amended his prior statement.

"To answer your question, Senri, it's like a thing animals do. Sorry," he excused himself at the rather incredulous looks caused by his metaphor. "In the interest of propagation, most species experience a sudden hormonal rush in the spring that, well, gives them the urge to merge. But _technically_, since everybody here is of Noble class, _you_ don't really have much of a mating season…"

"Well, then," Ruka yawned from the loveseat, "Why are we being moved?"

"Because," Kurosu frowned, trying to find a way to explain. "The mating thing sort of filters down the bloodline purity chain. Humans don't have it, because they're a purified, homogenous race. But in vampire society, only the purebloods are, well, pure. Everyone else – even you lovely children – have the potential to degrade down to bloody animals. Don't look at me like that, Ruka-chan. I'm not saying it's going to _happen. _But we all know what the C-classes are like. I guess you can think of it as the more beastly you get, the more mating season affects you. For most of you, there will be…_urges_. Honestly, I'm rather surprised none of you know this."

"We're nobles," Aidou said bluntly. "I think we can handle _urges_."

The Chairman sighed, and considered explaining. He ran an eye over the room, trying to find one of the older vampires, spotted a target, and leapt.

"Kain-kun!" the Chairman rounded on the redhead. Kain looked up, surprised.

"Yes?"

"You are of age, aren't you?"

"Have been for fifteen years," he replied with no enthusiasm.

"Good, so you've experienced it before," Kurosu nodded. "This will be better than me trying to preach to you. Be a dear tell them how uncomfortable it is to _resist the urges_."

Kain blinked. Most of the room was now wide awake, and concentrated on him.

"Well…yeah," he shifted uncomfortably. "It's nothing much around the beginning…a few twinges, and you're a little more aggressive and impulsive, some changes in behavior, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Towards the end, it hurts. It gets worse, later and later in the week."

"_Week_?" Aidou demanded. "How come you never told me about this?" The blonde suddenly looked scandalized. "_Is this why you wouldn't leave the bathroom for three whole days last year_?"

"It's only the first week that affects you," Kurosu interjected, "After that, it doesn't, anymore. After the first week, they…you know…have kids. It's why the regular class is much more densely populated than you are. Besides, even if it's just _trifling_ urges for you dear children for a short period during the spring, please note, my cute little vampires, there are still some _issues_. Vampires are naturally drawn to those with greater bloodline purity than they themselves. This tendency is exaggerated during mating. Considering the massive influx of newly ex-human and E-class vampires caused by the late Rido-sama –" the entire room simultaneously bristled, "we – that is, your parents and I – are extremely concerned with the increasing possibility that you will be…_victimized_."

The blonde man cocked his head as if fishing for the right word. "You know what I mean, don't you?"

"We can just kill them," Shiki offered.

"Ohoho, now, we can't have you doing _that_," Kurosu chirped happily, "This is a _peaceful_ facility. I will not have any killing of _anything _on this campus. We get all our meat imported, you know. But preparations have already begun. I put in a quick ring with the Association before I headed over here. We will be shutting down the Day Dorms and sending the students home for spring holiday. Vampires often need to feed more frequently during mating, you see. In the lower classes, it's a free-for-all – and an unfortunately busy season for the hunters. Not only do vampires become aggressive towards each other, but they are almost blindly aggressive towards humans. Your parents, of course, contacted me to convey their decision that you are likely safer here than at the open expanses of your estates."

"Wait," Ruka held up one hand, the other pinching the bridge of her fine nose. "Why is this even a problem? Trifling romantic urges? I don't understand what you have to fear. There has never been an issue before. I have never had a problem _not_ jumping someone."

"Well, I think it's more of a problem of _them_ getting us than _us_ getting each other," Takuma offered cheerfully.

"Like they could," Rima grumbled. Before the Chairman could rebuke her, two pairs of feet - one leather-clad, one bare - appeared on the stairs. Kurosu started, and jumped from his seat.

"Kaname-kun! Yuuki!" the Chairman beamed. The gathering of vampires shot up from their slouched perches, bowing before the descent of the two purebloods.

"Chairman?" Yuuki blinked from the staircase, yawning. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, well," Kurosu sighed dejectedly. "Now I'm going to have to explain it all again."

"No need," Kaname waved him off. "Hanabusa's father has contacted me. I will proceed from here. Ruka," he now directed his attention towards the brunette, "it is an issue of your safety now, because lower level vampires only attack non-mated vampires and vampires of mating age who have not yet entered into a blood-bound engagement contract. Mated or engaged vampires are at no risk, as well as the younger vampires, those who have yet to reach reproductive matuirty. It is unfortunate that this year, in addition to the increased population of volatile C-classes, most of you are now of, or have just reached, age. And to my knowledge, _none _of you have yet to begin negotiations for blood contracts."

"I can vouch for the Chairman," Takuma chirped. "I've been of age for some time now, too. And I think, Seiren?"

Kaname's bodyguard nodded tersely.

"Though most of you can more than capably protect yourselves," Kaname continued gently, "in this case, neither the Chairman nor I see any reason for you to be put at risk of attack by mating vampires. You are all still young and inexperienced with the situation. The lower classes are many, and they are especially strong during mating season. They will find you, like moth to a flame. While you may begin the week with the ability to fend them off, you will find that your actions and your self-control will rapidly erode. Eventually, you _will_ be blood contracted, or experienced enough to know how to properly deal with the prospect of constant attack. You will learn how to handle the situation on your own. But this year, there are too many hazards in play."

He paused, letting his words sink in.

"Tonight," he continued in his soft, measured voice, "You will be transferred to an isolated facility that is being remodelled and reinforced as we speak. Shiki, Rima, and a few others here will be enlisted as control. The rest of you will be sent home, unless you wish to volunteer to guard the building. Those two dozen who are of age, you will be contained and locked, separately and individually, within facilities equipped to see to all your needs. This is the easiest and most efficient way we can ensure your safety, and reduce the amount of damage to both the school and the Chairman's reputation."

Kaname sat down, looked up and locked eyes with each member of his audience.

"This is not a request. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Kaname-sama," came the wave of voices. There was no arguing with _Kaname __Kuran_. The chairman beamed happily from his place beside Kaname's chair.

"What about you, Kaname-sama, Yuuki-sama?" Aidou questioned. "Are you to be locked in as well?"

"No," Kaname replied, softly smoothing Yuuki's hair as she blinked tiredly. "As the Chairman has stated, mating season does not affect purebloods. However, we will be more hindrance than help here. Our blood may draw more dangers than you may otherwise incur. We will leave tomorrow morning. We are going with Ouri as guests of the Earl of Hargreaves in England."

Aidou sat back, satisfied that the Kurans would be living under considerably better conditions than the rest of them (as, of course, purebloods should be). In the wake of the announcement, the Night Class began trying to settle into the idea of being in a confined space for a yet unspecified amount of time.

"Chairman," Kain said suddenly, "How long is this detention going to last? Will we be confined for the entire season?"

"It's not _detention_," the Chairman protested, then paused, "Well, actually, I guess if you choose the correct definition it _is_ detention…nevertheless, mating season lasts two months of the spring, but you only need to be contained for the first week; from thereon your urges will subside. However, I must encourage you to remember that this is a new experience for most of you. While you have chosen to spend time at the Academy, most of your peers are already contracted by your age, and will never experience it. I myself have never experienced the phenomenon, but I have read the literature. And I assure you," he almost winced, "next Sunday will be _thoroughly_ unpleasant to live through."

He paused to let his words sink in, and then smiled, brightly.

"Considering the circumstances, classes are cancelled today. Household staff are being sent from the Aidou and Kain compounds to assist you in packing your belongings. Please cooperate with them. You will be situated within the compound before midnight. Understand?"

A wave of halfhearted mumbles was his reply. The Chairman took their response as a positive, beamed, waved cheerfully and flounced away.

**-x-**

Ruka stood at the center of her room, lording over the half-dozen maids frantically trying to pack her entire closet before midnight. Poplin and silk and chiffon were being flung madly around the room, items disappearing into large trunks and cases as her side of the dorm was stripped and tucked away. Rima's side looked absurdly lived-in – Ruka swears she can see an exact boundary line between what was being bundled up by the maids and what lay untouched. Her roommate had left for the mysterious complex hours ago, halfway through the consolidation of Ruka's vintage blouses. Ruka didn't really see the point of packing so much clothing for one week of residence, and had campaigned relentlessly against bedding and pillows and things that would without doubt be provided, but they had insisted on the wardrobe – she was a noble, she was a noble _daughter_, _and_ she was the _only_ daughter of the noble family of Soen. Anything less would be positively shameful, thoroughly unheard of. Aidou's housekeeper had told Ruka in no uncertain terms that the old woman's neck would be on the line were it to be leaked, somehow, that the staff had not treated Soen's daughter with adequate respect. So Ruka relented. And she was starting to regret it.

Normally, moving her gargantuan closet was a task that required at least a week's notice, seeing as the Soen family maids had taken three days to accomplish the feat in time for her to go move to school. But under the sharp eye of the slightly frightening multifunctional manor maid, the women were making amazing progress. Ruka threw cosmetics from her vanity into a bag and plopped it onto the impressive mountain of trunks already piled in the center of the room. Around half of her clothes were still hanging, and it was already ten. Ruka was now beyond displeased. She was never late. Scions of the Soen family are _never late_. If she was late, there would be hell to pay.

"Could you hurry p, please?" the golden-haired girl demanded with as much patience and politesse as she could muster. It had been three hours. She had expected to be long gone by then. The maids decided to stop wrapping everything in tissue paper before throwing it into the trunks.

"Hey, Ruka."

She diverted her aggravated gaze from her closet to the door, to see a slightly rumpled Kain, carrying a duffel bag, followed by two identical brunette maids pulling a small luggage trolley. A single large suitcase sat on the vehicle. Ruka felt almost jealous.

"I'm on my way out," he told her.

"Okay," Ruka turned back with a frown. "I suppose I won't see you there."

"I can wait for you," he offered.

"That's alright," she sighed. "This is going to take a little longer."

"Are you sure? I don't mind."

Ruka smiled wanly. Of course he didn't. Kain never minded doing anything. His excessive concern and overprotective bearing became strikingly clear only a couple of years after they'd met. She wondered sometimes if he'd been born that gallant, coming out of the womb bearing roses for his poor mother.

"I'm a big girl, Akatsuki," she replied with a wry grin. "I think I can move some bags by myself, at the very least."

He smiled and shrugged. "Don't be late."

With a slight creak of the trolley, he disappeared from her doorway. Ruka's brow furrowed deeply, a vein beginning to twitch in her jaw. Despite her reassurances to Kain, Ruka wasn't so certain she could handle the absurdity of her current situation. Maybe it would've been better to have asked him to just pick two trunks and take her with him. She would, at the very least, reach her destination before the week was out.

"Hurry _up_," she hissed. The slightly frightening multifunctional manor maid decided it was time to employ the services of her two black-robed assistants if the feat of packing were to be accomplished at all that night. Dismissing the staff sent from the Aidou estate, she wove her two servants into action with a cheerful smile. The black blurs threw themselves into their mission with alarming speed.

"Would you like a drink, Soen-sama?" the manor maid questioned, cocking her head cheerfully.

"No, thank you," Ruka sighed. "Just…please get me there in time."

"Of course, Soen-sama."

The black blurs sped up. Ruka was baffled. She didn't understand why they didn't just _start _with these things. Within the half hour, the other half of her wardrobe was packed and ready to go. The slightly shorter black hood slammed the cover of the last suitcase shut, closed the door to Ruka's walk-in closet, and disappeared with its twin. Ruka took a deep breath, turned to her mantle, and found that they had packed her gold and mahogany clock as well.

"What time is it now?" she asked the maid.

"It is quarter to eleven, Soen-sama."

Ruka released a long breath in irritation.

"Okay. Let's go. Lead the way, please."

"Of course, Soen-sama."

Waving one thin arm, the maid summoned a baggage cart and single-handedly loaded twenty suitcases and three duffels onto a precarious pile upon it. Directing a nonchalant smile at the astounded look on Ruka's face, she wrangled it down the stairs and out the door. Ruka followed.

It was eleven on the dot.

The maid led Ruka through a veritable maze in the grounds, in the complete opposite direction of the school building. Ruka ran her eyes hesitantly over the tall fir trees lining the path. She had no idea there were such intricate stone passageways through the forest behind the dormitories. The rough path wove between the trees in a direction that was decidedly westward, but Ruka could not make out any indication of their destination. The maid, however, lead the way with great confidence, effortlessly pulling the loaded luggage trolley behind her. Ruka didn't know how long it was supposed to take to get there, but the possibility of tardiness worried her. She hated pushing deadlines. What use would eight ball gowns be in solitary confinement?

They had been walking in steady silence for a long while, when suddenly, from out of the canopy of trees, sprouted a shining, black tile rooftop. The stately, gargantuan red brick mansion rose quickly into sight, almost a mile and a half from the dorms. As they approached, Ruka observed it had large bay windows caged in iron bars, and French doors leading to black balconies. In ten more minutes, a wrought-iron gate appeared before them, the only breach in the soaring brick wall surrounding the entire facility. Shiki and Rima stood before it in adorable orange mechanic uniforms, bearing clipboards. Ruka couldn't proccess the absurdity of the juxtaposition.

It was eleven thirty-five.

"It figures you're the last one, Ruka," Rima told her matter-of-factly as Shiki pushed opened the gates.

"Where would you like me to put these, Touya-sama?" the maid cocked her head, waving an arm at the mountain of luggage Ruka had brought.

Rima eyed the trolley apprehensively. "Hey, Ruka, did you really need this much for one week?"

"It wasn't my idea," Ruka said defensively.

"Aidou brought about twenty sets of his scented sheets and pillows, and memory foam, too," Shiki reminded her from off to one side. "It was about the same size. Maybe a little bigger."

Rima shrugged and flipped a page on her clipboard, running her finger down a list of names.

"Third door on your right on the second floor, Ruka," Rima put a check next to _Soen, Ruka_ and handed her friend a slim velvet box. "This is your intercom, your key card and a Swiss Army knife, just in case," the blonde girl said flatly. "If you need anything, just 'com the control room for your floor. I think there's a button for that. That's where Shiki and I will be."

Eleven forty.

Ruka took the box a little cautiously, pulled out what looked like a big silver plate, and raised an eyebrow at Rima. The younger girl shrugged.

"Go on," she said. "Hurry, you have twenty minutes."

The maid had disappeared immediately after Rima had given directions. Ruka gave the blonde an apprehensive glance, and marched down the yellow brick pathway to the door.

The heavy double doors opened to a short, dark hallway, leading to an empty lounge, at least a dozen times larger than the one in the dorm. The manor was saturated with decadence – Persian rugs sat under stuffed antique chairs in the lounge, and the walls were papered in red and gold. On Ruka's left and right were two golden, spiral staircases, cut evenly by landings, leading to a second and third floor, each framed by a wrap-around balcony fenced in white. There were no ceilings separating the floors. A massive crystal chandelier hung from the high, vaulted dome of the room, shimmering dimly with candlelight. Along the walls were alternating black and white doors, each spaced an even, massive eighty feet apart. Candlelit sconces were placed evenly between rooms, bathing the thick carpet in a warm, mellow light. A center door faced the main entrance on each door, painted deep red.

_The right_, Ruka thought, spotting her luggage cart halfway between two rooms on the second floor. _Where do I start counting doors from?_

The manor was sparsely lit. Ruka could barely make out the shape of the luggage cart even as she ascended a staircase towards it.

Eleven forty five.

As she closed in on the landing, it became clear that none of the doors were labeled. No numbers. No letters. Just bare, blank, nothing. Ruka sighed. Great. She paused at the top of the staircase, made a wild guess and started counting. Upon reaching the third door, she turned and tugged on a single bronze bar of her baggage cart. It wouldn't budge. Furrowing her brow, Ruka pulled. She had not realized how heavy her collective belongings were...slowly, she made her way down the carpeted corridor, pulling and pushing, towards what she hoped was her door. It was unlocked.

Weird_._

Ruka eyed her key card suspiciously. She nudged the door open with one hip, pushing against the heavy obstruction with the full weight of her body and, pulling her luggage with her in opponent force in an impressive display of experimental physics. It took a few tries, but a final, frustrated tug sent Ruka and her trolley tumbling into the pitch black, unlit room. Eleven fifty three.

The room was dark, save for a small pool of moonlight seeping through the lace curtains on the far side of the room. Ruka blinked, her night eyes adjusting rapidly. Pushing away from the luggage cart, she felt along one wall, then the other, before her fingers caught on something knobbly. Within seconds, the entire room was flushed in a mellow light.

Eleven fifty five.

There were the French doors on the far side of the massive, spacious room; the same ones she had observed on the exterior of the building. A circular, glass-topped bistro table stood in front of the glass panes, accompanied by a pair of raised-leg wrought-iron chairs. Two doors separated the far wall from a large, plush couch, sitting close to Ruka, and another its other side. In front of the couch was a coffee table, with several cups of various sizes arranged, rim-down, upon white plates. A massive plasma TV spanned the entire opposite wall, a low TV stand nudged under it. An empty doorframe on one side of the television led to a spacious kitchen. Ruka could see an island and several wooden barstools. On the other side, several other doors graced empty spaces on the walls, leading to yet unexplored rooms. The mere size of the _living_ area made Ruka understand why the spaces between each door were so formidable. She stepped forward, intending to locate the master bedroom, hand firmly wrapped around one metal pole of her luggage trolley.

Eleven fifty six.

Suddenly, one of the doors on the far side of the room burst open in a cloud of steam. Kain stepped out, a towel slung low on his hips, another rubbing his dripping wet hair, framed by the bright light pouring out of the room he had just exited. Ruka started, hands darting to her mouth, eyes fixed on the tall redhead in indecipherable surprise. Kain noticed Ruka a split second after she saw him, and blinked, rubbing an eye as if she were some sort of illusion.

"What – Ruka?" he stared at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Sorry," Ruka fumbled, cheeks flushing pink, unnerved by his unexpected, half-naked presence in the room. "Rima said – Akatsuki, can you put a shirt on?"

"Oh," he seemed to realize, and blushed. "Yeah sorry, one second."

Eleven fifty seven.

**-x-**

"Hey, Rima," Shiki straightened from his relaxed recline on the couch of the second floor control room. "Come over here."

"What?" Rima turned from flipping through the massive music collection in the stand under the TV and shuffled towards him, leaning over his shoulder to look at the clipboard Shiki was examining. The black-haired boy was tapping the board a little agitatedly with a pencil.

"Ruka…you told her the third door on the second floor, right? On the right?"

"Yeah," Rima replied.

"That would be room 2C."

"Theoretically, yes," Rima cocked her head at the clipboard. "What's the problem?"

Shiki pointed a finger at the checked box beside Ruka's name.

_2D._

"Oh."

"It's barely two minutes to midnight." He ran a finger up the list to _2C_. "Look where you put her."

The blonde girl blinked. Tugged on a ponytail. Frowned.

"Oh. Oh _no_."

She paused.

"But ironic, yes?"

**-x-**

The velvet box Rima had placed in Ruka's hands began beeping shrilly. Startled, Ruka fumbled with the clasp, and popped it open. The silver plate was vibrating. A click from the far side of the room - at the sound, Ruka looked up at Kain, walking out of what she assumed to be the bedroom door. "How do I – ?"

"Here," he strode over, took the plate from her hands and pushed on the bottom. It sprung open to reveal Rima's face on a circular screen, with rows of little numbered buttons coating the opposite plate.

Eleven fifty nine.

"Ruka?" Ruka leaned over. "Ruka, get out of there _now_."

"What?"

"Ruka," Shiki's face nudged Rima's to the side. "You're in the wrong room. Rima put you in Kain's room."

"Yes, I noticed," she replied dryly, pointing over her shoulder to Kain's head, now hovering near the balcony.

"Your room's actually two doors down," Rima sounded a little panicked. "Ruka, the door locks in a minute, so just get out and we'll figure out what –"

_Click_.

Ruka and Kain whirled around, staring at the door as identical, resounding clicks echoed from rooms to their left and right.

"What was that?"

"Crap," Rima was viciously pressing buttons on her own intercom now. "The doors lock ten seconds early. Shiki!" The black-haired boy reached for the keypad and swiftly keyed in three numbers. "Okay, thanks. I have to get the Chairman on the 'com…sorry, Ruka…"

Ruka took a deep breath and tried not to scream. "Okay. It's going to be okay. Rima, just tell the Chairman to unlock the door and let me out."

"Hey," Kain drifted from the French doors he had been attempting to open. "Are these fake?"

"Yeah," Shiki's voice replied dryly, "The balcony's inaccessible. It's decorative. Sorry."

The dial tone sounding from the silver disk cut off, and the round intercom screen split to reveal a jubilant Chairman Kurosu on one side, and Rima on the other.

"Good midnight, my cute little children!" the Chairman chirped happily, "Was my plan successful? Is everyone locked in? Is everyone safe – wait a minute, Rima-chan, why are Kain-kun and Ruka-chan on _one screen_?"

"Rima gave Ruka the wrong room," Kain deadpanned. "She's locked in mine. Can you get her out?"

The Chairman froze.

"You mean – unlock the door?"

"_Yes_," Ruka enunciated. "Unlock the door."

"But," the Chairman now looked more flustered than Rima. "But…those doors have been programmed by the Assocation to be locked from midnight tonight until midnight on Sunday."

"So call the Assocation and have them come unlock it," Shiki stated, with less than no enthusiasm.

"But," the Chairman was now blatantly panicking. "But, I ordered an unconditional lock."

"So?"

"So…they can't unlock it. Nobody can."

Silence.

"Excuse me," Ruka seethed, "Please say that again."

The Chairman cringed. "An unconditional lock…you're in there for the week."

"So…I'm stuck in here and you can't get me out?"

"…yes?"

Ruka froze. Kain scowled.

"Can't I just…kick it down?"

The Chairman shook his head, wringing his hands. "Well, I mean, you can try…but it's a triple platinum enforced titanium door. Even the hinges are titanium. It's made so you can't force your way out. Or rather, that no one can force their way in. Everything that looks like iron is actually made of the same material…the glass is actually an amorphous compound used on the space station, and it's diamond-coated…"

"Oh _no_." Rima sighed. "Sorry, Ruka."

"Where did you get the money to pay for all this?" Shiki inquired.

"Can't you…melt it or something?" Ruka turned to Kain expectantly.

"With the temperature necessary to melt titanium? It would probably kill us both."

Ruka was pretty sure she was going to have an aneurysm.

"Chairman," she turned back to her disc, pleading desperately. "Is there _no way_ you can get me out?"

"Surely you do not find Kain-kun repulsive?" the man cocked his head curiously.

"That is _definitely_ not the point here."

"Ruka-chan…" he frowned apologetically, "I will wrack my brain from hereon out, but at the moment I see no way to remove you from the room."

"So," Kain surmised slowly, "So…she's in my room…for a week…unconditionally…during mating season? Ruka?"

The Chairman ducked his head as the gravity of the situation smacked him in the face.

"How could you fail to see the possibility of such a situation?" Ruka snapped, distraught.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know! I thought you would be smarter than that!"

Rima cringed.

"Okay," Shiki's face now dominated the control half of the screen. "Okay. We messed up. But we have to deal with it, so here's the plan. All you have to do is resist the urges. Kain, keep it in your pants. Ruka, lock your doors."

Kain glareed at the black-haired boy.

"Yeah," Rima's voice floated through the intercom, "You can do it. It's just slight urges, right?"

"Well," the Chairman's voice was shaky, "Well, the longer you are exposed to it, the stronger the urges are during mating season. I can't explain it. Nobody has ever researched the exact stages of hormonal alterations, but those are also bound to happen. And some shifts in behavior patterns. But Kain-kun's been through this a few times, right?"

Kain tried to resist the urge to kill something. "Yeah," he said finally, "My mother told me the discomfort is a good way of convincing someone to get engaged."

Somewhere in the distance, a tree erupted in flames.

"Well, I believe in you," Kurosu attempted a cheerful tone. "I have absolute faith that you two, of all people, can make it through the week with minimal damages. Now, I have to call your families before I send a crew to locate and stop the forest fire I'm sure Kain-kun's started…and I'll have control check on you every few hours. Keep me updated. So long!"

His half of the screen receded. Shiki and Rima's faces now dominated the screen, one perplexed, one anxious.

"We have to go," Rima said apologetically. "We're supposed to check in on everyone else…"

"Yeah," Shiki's hand appeared. "We'll check back on you guys. Just…keep your hands off each other. Okay?"

The screen turned black before either recipient could react. Ruka blinked at the intercom, then dropped it, wordlessly, to the ground.

"This is great," she blanched, plopping down on the couch and burying her face in her hands. "Just great. Grandmother is going to _slaughter_ me."

Kain stood, silently, by the door. Weighed his options.

"Grandmother is going to do no such thing," he offered, though he wasn't so sure. Izayoi Aidou was a terrifying woman. He decided to amend.

"If Grandmother is going to kill you, she's going to kill me, too."

He could've slapped himself. It was probably the least reassuring thing he could have come up with. Ruka groaned.

"I'm so sorry about this, Akatsuki," she mumbled through her fingers.

"It's fine," Kain said almost automatically. Like his accommodating her was a matter of principle. Her shoulders tensed in frustration.

"Well, I can't imagine this will be easy."

"Ruka," Kain sighed, squatting down in front of her and placing a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "Stop worrying. Really, this is barely an inconvenience. We've known each other since we were two feet tall."

Ruka glared. "You have never in your _life_ been two feet tall."

Kain shot her a reassuring grin. "That's not the point. My point is, we know how to live with each other. Been doing it for decades. And we won't even have Hanabusa to annoy us."

At this, Ruka cracked a smile.

"Well, that's always a plus."

"I'm not going to hurt you, Ruka. I promise."

"I know that," she said immediately, surprised at the implication that she might be _scared _of him.

"Do you?" he smiled. "Well, the next few days might change that. I can't anticipate what will happen, but I will do my best to keep things under control."

"Akatsuki," Ruka sighed. "I trust you."

"Good," Kain replied. "But you need to know that things might get heated. Not like _that_," he amended quickly, "But the Chairman wasn't exaggerating. If at any time you feel uncomfortable with my behavior, let me know and I will leave the room."

"Akatsuki," Ruka said drily, "The last time you made me uncomfortable, we were prancing around in a sandbox and you invited Kaname-sama to prance along."

Kain chuckled. "That's good to know."

"I'm not worried, Akatsuki. Just frazzled."

"What is there to be worried about?" Kain shrugged. "We'll be rooming together for a week. It's not very different from any other night we've spent at the Aidou manor…well, sans Hanabusa."

"You're not angry?" Ruka inquired. "After all, I am an uninvited guest."

"I got over it," Kain assured her calmly, while a full blown wave of fire erupted in the woods behind the mansion. "You can take the bed, I'll take the couch."

Ruka was mortified. "But…this is _your _room."

"Technically, it is now _our_ room. And you, Ruka, are a lady."

"That's preposterous," Ruka said sternly. "We will share. It's a big room; it must be a big bed. It shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Kain frowned. "Are you sure? I assure you I am all over the couch."

"Well…we did it when we were little. And like you said, Hanabusa isn't even here to kick me in the shins."

He grinned a little. "That's fair."

"We can renegotiate if things get difficult," Ruka decided. "And you'll let me know."

"Of course."

"Alright," Ruka took a deep breath. "It's just a week. We can do this, no problem."

"Yeah," he smiled. "So, how about you go take a shower and we'll sort out your stuff later? Everything's going to be fine."

He maneuvered her towards the bathroom, closed the door, insisted she lock it, and vanished. Ruka slumped to the ground, releasing a breath she didn't know she had been holding, her back pressed against the door, wondering how she began her day in a nice soft bed in her dorm room and ended it trapped in a deluxe suite in the middle of nowhere with the boy she had know since she was five. She didn't know why she was so on edge. After all, he had told her there was nothing to worry about, drawn ground rules. Same old Akatsuki. The same warm, reassuring presence she had always gone to in crisis. She knew him. They've been together for years. Kain was her protector, her cousin, her comfort, her loyal companion. His presence calmed her. He kept her in line. He kept her _sane_. But now, for some reason, in this room, he made her more nervous than she wanted to admit. Something about the situation. Something about the week.

And when did he get those six packs?

**-x-**

_Could you be happy to fall like a stone_

_If you'd land right here, safe in my arms?_

_It's fine, lock all your doors through the night_

_Keep it all right here, safe in my arms, it's fine._

**-x-**

_**Next time...**_

"But you're dirty," Ruka protested desperately, "_I'm_ dirty. We're making the bed dirty."

* * *

_**A/N:**_ No, this is not an update. Before you ask where the rest is, let me tell you that I'm redoing _One Week. _I'm renovating it, because the original writing is just bad, and I don't like the unbelievably OOC Ruka/Kain dynamic. I just don't like it. As a result, I'm going through and rewriting this story, so many events will change, and small but significant details will fluctuate. To facilitate the process, I'm starting from scratch and pulling all of it down for continuity reasons.

This story is going to be entirely revamped and reposted over the next few months, and it will probably undergo continuous revisions until I think it's up to par with what I've recently wrote. For example, I still don't like the end dialogue, so that will probably keep changing. I want to make sure the style of this story will match the style of the sequel chapters I've completed. For more information, check my profile.

The italicized lyrics are from _On the Safest Ledge _by Copeland.


	2. Monday

_Come on, skinny love, just last the year_

_Pour a little soul, we never here_

_Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer._

_Tell my love to wreck it all, cut all of the ropes and let me fall_

_Right at the moment, this order's tall._

**-x-**

**MONDAY**

**-x-**

Moonlight streamed through the cracks in the shutters, washing insistently over Ruka's face. She made an annoyed sound in the back of her throat, pulled the comforter over her nose, turned her back to the windows, and burrowed deeper into her pillow. The bed was warm and inviting, and Ruka was never one for waking up early. And her pillow smelled delightful.

Ruka's woozy mind stirred. Groggily recalled that she had never, ever had scented sheets. So...why did the bed smell like apples, and cinnamon, and —?

Her eyes snapped open to the sigh of _someone's_ firm, naked chest.

"Evening," Kain said, nursing a coffee in one hand and _The Great Gatsby _in the other, his normally stony expression laced with just a hint of amusement. Ruka's head was burrowed into the crook of his neck, her arm flung around his bare waist.

"Sorry I didn't wake you. You looked comfortable."

Ruka sat up swiftly, too mortified to form a reply. She turned and stared at her side of the massive double-king sized bed, horrified that she had, over the course of the day, managed to span the formidable space that had existed between them in the morning. Turning back, Ruka found Kain's eyes still fixed on the book in his hand, seemingly intent on not alarming her any further. He sat, propped against goose feather pillows, against the headboard, the sheets and blankets crumpled around his abdomen, forming a little hollow where Ruka had been buried minutes before. Other people's choice of sleeping attire had never been a problem for Ruka before, but she presently came to the quick conclusion that it was probably going to be an issue that Kain didn't go to bed in anything but shorts.

"When…?"

Kain shrugged. "A few hours after you fell asleep. It's no matter. I'll turn the thermostat up in the morning."

Ruka sighed, collecting herself with as much dignity as she could muster. "Yes. Thank you."

She looked around the room, pulling the loose braid in her hair apart. "What time is it?"

"Ten," Kain sipped his coffee calmly. "At night."

Ruka frowned. "What time were you up?"

"Seven."

"You're absurd," she said with great seriousness. "And, you know, don't have to wait up for me."

He smiled gently and politely looked away as she slid to the far side of the bed. Ruka wasn't wearing much, either – just a short chiffon night shirt and a pair of pajama shorts. Their prior proximity had involved more skin-to-skin contact than she had been aware of. But he was warm, and comfortable, and…Ruka shook her head abruptly, and crouched down to dig in a suitcase Kain had deposited under the windowsill. Kain set down his book, eased out of bed, and located an undershirt. Despite Ruka's prior discomfort, she couldn't help but smile. He was always so perceptive. She could never be uneasy around him, not for long. She rounded the bedposts and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Kain picked up a black button-up shirt with thin white pinstripes from the chair by his bedside table. Maybe he _was_ a little worried about his primal instincts – both their instincts. He knew the week would be difficult; at least, he was certain it would be for him. He had mentally cursed himself for agreeing to sleep in the same bed, but he did so in an attempt to show her that nothing would change. They'd slept in the same bed before. The situation would hold as much innocence as it had when they were children. He hadn't expected her to snuggle next to him like she was a child again, not on the first day. Kain took a deep breath and ran a hand through his tousled hair.

The door to the bathroom popped open, and he looked up from warring with his buttons. Ruka popped her head out of the bathroom, running a silver-backed brush through her honey-colored hair as she did so.

"I forgot. Akatsuki…you smell good. "

She blushed, he blinked at her blankly.

"It's nice," Ruka finished lamely.

She slammed the door shut, and after a few seconds, locked it just in case. Kain resisted the urge to laugh.

Mating season was going to affect Ruka more than he would have thought.

**-x-**

Ruka surfaced from the bathroom an hour later, in a fluttering, knee-length white dress and an oversized blue-grey cardigan, hair had twisted up into a massive, carefully careless knot on top of her head. The bedroom was empty – their suitcases lay open, still; hers under the windowsill and his, by the untouched closet doors. Their pillows were still pushed together, his scrunched and hers at an angle, a clear indication of the pattern of movement on the bed. Turning with a slight blush, Ruka slid out the doors of the master bedroom – and was immediately hit by the near palpable scent of cinnamon.

It floated from the kitchen: Kain's scent. It was a mix of spicy cinnamon with dark undertones of ash, laced with the crisp sweet scent of apple bark, with a hint of dewy rose. The scent was warm and inviting, and so acute, now that she'd spent an entire day coated in it. Deciding her earlier comments were probably at least a little inappropriate, she strode cautiously across the living room, towards her new suitemate.

The kitchen was a large room, lined with cabinets, marble counters, and expensive-looking cookware. Wrapping around the stove and the ovens was a granite breakfast bar, accompanied by tall wooden stools. A small TV sat at the end of the counter, blaring the evening news. Kain was crouched over, the top of his hair even with the cabinets, his head in the refrigerator, a half-empty glass of red liquid already on the counter behind him. A sack of potatoes sat, open, near the pantry door.

"What are you doing?"

He looked up. "I'm making breakfast. Do you want anything?"

"No, just a tablet is fine."

"There's a shelf of bottles in the pantry. You can take one of mine."

She pushed one door of the fridge closed and poured herself a glass of water from the dispenser, picking a blood tablet from the open container beside Kain's half-drained glass and plopping it into her own. Kain re-opened the refrigerator door and pulled out butter, bacon and eggs. Ruka took a gulp of her concoction – the dull, metallic taste of manufactured blood made her wince – and eyed the bacon with increasing interest.

"On second thought," Ruka paused, taking another sip with a slight grimace, "A bit of food can't hurt."

"I thought so." Kain had extracted enough ingredients from the refrigerator for two. "Getting hungry? It's only Monday." He turned from the bread cabinet and smiled at her. "White or whole grain?"

"White," she decided, "And, what?"

"You get hungry during mating season," Kain told her as he slathered butter on three pieces of bread and tossed them in a frying pan, "All the…you know."

"Let's steer clear of that topic."

"Sure."

He pressed little cylindrical depressions into each piece of toast and cracked the eggs, and nudged them with a spatula until each egg sat neatly in the indentation of their individual toast slices. Kain peeled the potatoes and, as Ruka watched from her sitting perch on the island counter, grated them with a cheese grater, before dumping the whole lot into another pan.

"Here," he held out his spatula, "Stir that when it gets brown."

The blank look she gave him stated quite clearly that she had never cooked a thing in her life, but she got up and plucked the spatula from his hand anyways. He added seasoning to both hash browns and bread, and dumped a whole bag of bacon onto a third pan. As the meat sizzled, he pulled two dishes out from the cabinet above his head, and put two pieces of toast on one, one on the other. Putting them down beside the stove, he walked over to stand behind Ruka, who was poking cautiously at the potatoes.

"Ruka," she almost jumped when his hand covered hers, chopping viciously at the potatoes with the spatula, "Be more violent when it comes to food in a frying pan."

"Don't be snippy," she frowned. "I rarely do battle with vegetables."

He chuckled, the sound vibrating through his chest, barely an inch from her back. She resisted the blush flooding towards her face. Kain, on the other hand, didn't seem at all concerned with their physical proximity. Ruka was feeling a little oversensitive.

Executing a few flips with great finality, he decided the potatoes were done and scooped the hash browns onto their plates. Kain freed Ruka of the actual task of cooking, realizing it was not worth the hassle, and let her watch as he flipped the bacon, pressed it down, and then served it.

"Come on," he nudged her gently with one foot, "Food's done."

Ruka slid off the counter and followed him to the bar stools, before which he set both their plates.

"I didn't know you cooked," she said. He shrugged.

"Hanabusa eats like a horse. Try the potatoes."

She did, and found she liked them. Kain ate twice as much as she did, and no wonder; he was at least a foot taller, and bigger all around. To his amusement, she demolished her plate with her own unique brand of delicate enthusiasm. When she realized he was taking his time processing his meal, she left to find something to do.

Ruka gauged the doors on the kitchen side of the suite and selected the largest. It led to a windowless, carpeted room, room with walls coated in oak bookshelves, spanning from the ceiling to the floor. Several more stood in rows in the space between the walls, and rolling ladders were fixed onto each bookcase for ease of access. In the middle of the entire presentation was a cozy sitting area. A low wooden table sat in the middle of a pair of chintz chairs and two small, sleek coffee-colored couches. A simple five-pronged bronze chandelier hung from the vaulted ceiling above the table, bathing the entire room in dim, orangey warmth. A lamp with a white lace shade sat on a corner table between the chairs, proffering further illumination as needed. A stack of neatly folded knit blankets sat on the leftmost couch, and piles of cushions were splayed about the arrangement in organized disarray.

Perfect.

Ruka wandered towards the shelves, chose one at random and raised herself upwards on a ladder, plucking a book bound in deep violet felt from the highest shelf and examining it. Another bound in worn leather caught her attention, and a third with a stiff white cover. Satisfied with her choices, Ruka left the wall, plucked a fluffy blanket from the top of the pile and situated herself comfortably on one of the suede chintz chairs, curling catlike around her recently procured copy of _The Awakening, _an anthology of Oscar Wilde and _A Room With A View _stacked carefully on the edge of the center table.

Sparing the entire library a glance before she delved into the tome, she wondered where Kurosu got the money to _build_ places like this.

**-x-**

Ruka woke with a start hours later. Her blanket and her book had slipped onto the ground. The lamp beside her was still on, but the chandelier had dimmed. She frowned. She didn't remember falling asleep. Ruka picked the novel off of the floor, dog-eared the last page she remembered reading, and set it down on the center table on top of the anthology of Wilde. There was no clock in the room, and no telling what time it was. She drifted out, flicking the lights off as she closed the door.

The suite was eerily silent. Kain was nowhere in sight. Ruka peeked into the kitchen, and found that the dishes from the morning had been washed and neatly stacked on a drying rack by the sink. A scan of the bedroom saw the bed made and the suitcases on the floor closed shut, but no sign of Kain. There were no sounds coming from the bathroom, either. Ruka took a peek outside the French windows, just in case; nothing, of course. With a sigh, Ruka plopped down onto the couch in the living room, twiddled her thumbs a little, and dropped the back of her head down over the top of the backrest. There really wasn't much to do, not by herself. She straightened to reach for the remote on the coffee table and noticed, out of the corner of her eye, an imposing gray door next to her perch of choice. It was slightly ajar. Ruka decided it was worth a shot, and pulled the surprisingly heavy entry open.

Sound protected_. S_he examined the iron backside of the wooden door with mild suspicion.

The brunette found herself in a long, dark corridor, lined with five doors on each side, a considerable space between each. There were unlit florescent lights on the ceiling, but no light switches to be found anywhere near the entrance. The entire complex was structurally impossible. Ruka made a mental note to ask Shiki for blueprints_. _

The hall offered little indication as to Kain's whereabouts, but a tiny whiff of that familiar cinnamon escaped the fourth door on her left. Ruka pressed her hand down against the metal doorknob, gave it a second or two, and forced it open – then stared in shock at the expanse before her.

Grass. Trees. Bushes and bushes of exotic flowers. Past a winding stone path, she could see the roof of a patio. She could hear the sound of running water. Stepping into the greenery, and moving slowly down the path, she registered ponds, a rock garden, and an assortment of halls and pavilions made of frames carved from cuts of rosewood, connected by winding paths and zig-zag galleries. It was a Chinese garden in neatly condensed miniature. Even the high ceiling had been painted to look like sky. The room immediately served to further Ruka's conviction that the mansion was physically and logically unfeasible. She bent down to run a hand over the grass– real. She shook her head in disbelief.

Past the carefully constructed a lily pond, wrapped in a fossilized cove, Ruka found Kain sprawled in the grass by a small koi pond. He lay with his arms folded under his neck, knees propped up, basking in artificial sunlight. Beside him, little red blobs blew bubbles to the surface of the water. She could swear she heard a bird chirp.

"Now this is just absurd," Ruka said.

"I know," he replied, eyes still closed.

"Are those real fish?"

"I would say yes. I fed them bread crumbs from the pantry."

He patted the grass beside him. Without hesitation, Ruka sat down and stretched out on the bank.

"How did you find this place?" she asked, impressed by the softness of the ground beneath her.

"I picked a door randomly. I figured I'd do a little exploring, see what our recreational prospects are."

"Did you find anything else?"

"There's a pool down the hall, and a theater, and an auditorium with instruments. I'm sure there'll be a ballroom in here somewhere."

"This is unbelievable," Ruka shook her head, skirting her fingers over the blades of grass. Kain grinned.

"I know," he said again.

"How long have you been in here?"

"A few hours. I dozed off."

"So did I."

"Ah," he said, cracking open one lid, turning his face slightly to look at her. "What have you been up to?"

"There's a library on the other side of the kitchen," Ruka replied, laying down with a contented sigh. "Very manorial. Not as excessive as this, though."

Kain smiled. "The Chairman is full of good intentions. To be fair, there's really not much to do indoors, by yourself."

"I noticed, earlier. I couldn't find you."

"Sorry. Should I have left a note?"

"Maybe a map."

Kain laughed. "So that's the upside here. At least we have each other for company."

"True," Ruka conceded. "Things do get rather monotonous when I'm on my own."

"What did you use to do?" he asked. "Before we all moved to the Academy. I know your brothers started working around the same time Hanabusa and I weren't around."

"Lady things. Balls and cotillions and parties and borstal charities and going to the theater," Ruka sighed, examining her perfectly manicured fingernails. "Lots of nothing, really. I stopped wanting to go out in the evenings a few years after our first party, after the excitement wore off."

"I remember that phase. You started throwing tantrums. Ah, nostalgia."

Ruka shot him a wry glare. "I had absolutely nothing to do. I wasn't old enough for suitors, yet."

"I recall," Kain mused. "Your mother sent you to live with Uncle Aidou, didn't she? You were there for months before I found out."

"Hanabusa said it would be a fabulous surpise."

"It was a surprise," Kain shrugged. "I walk in there after racquetball looking like I'd just survived a natural disaster, and you fainted."

"You were _hardly_ presentable."

He laughed. "I've seen you in footsie pajamas. I'm not too concerned about presentable."

"Well, even living with Hanabusa was better than just sitting around at home," Ruka huffed. "I felt terribly ornamental."

"I can't imagine you being too idle," he smiled.

"That's my duty, though, isn't it? Sit still and look pretty. Marry someone wealthy, from a good bloodline. Die of boredom, if anything, eventually."

"Well," Kain kept his voice steady. "Marry someone who won't leave you home to wilt, then."

"_Akatsuki_," her tone was rather condescending. "I can't challenge my parents on something as big as an engagement. Especially not a real one."

"I can't picture you settling for any old bore without a fight."

"I can't, either," Ruka sighed. "You know, I'm so scared of being tied down. I'd rather be alone. But that's not possible."

"You're a noble, Ruka," Kain said gently. "You have hundreds of years to live. No one in your family will expect you to spend the majority of your life in matrimonial misery."

Ruka smiled faintly.

"Did you know my brother Koutei hired human servants to work in his household? None of them every recognized me. I never visited often enough. They were never the same people, but they lived with such urgency. I was so aware of how effervescent they were."

"We all are," he replied. "Those of us more conscious of the humans, at least."

"I thought, if I am to live a thousand years, I should accomplish six or seven times the feats of a human."

"Another reason our kind don't like associating with humans," Kain told her. "After everything, they still make you feel rather unaccomplished."

"Indeed," Ruka shrugged. "I was really jealous. You were all living, too. You and Hanabusa are heirs to your fathers, you could do whatever you wanted. You _did_ do whatever you wanted. Shiki was never really reined in, either. His mother is crazy, and his uncle rarely visits. Even Takuma-sama and Kaname-sama, under Ichiou's thumb, had the freedom to go where they wanted, as long as they stayed with their guards. Rima was allowed to do as she pleased too, after one of her sisters got engaged. She joined Shiki's modeling agency the day after her parents signed Kiyu's papers. She told me I could, too. But I am the only daughter in my family."

"But you have _four _brothers to run the family. Isn't that enough?"

"It's not the same," Ruka threw one pale arm over her eyes. "My brothers have become heads of my father's operations. That is how they contribute. I don't work in my father's industries, and frankly, I don't want to. The only thing I can offer my family is a respectable marriage."

She sighed.

"Our society is so feudal, Akatsuki."

He nodded in silent agreement. Ruka frowned.

"I'm not saying my parents are tyrannical," she edited. "They wanted me to gain my own experiences, too. We may be trapped within the confines of expectations, but my parents still love me. They didn't want me to be unhappy any more than, say, you do."

"Of course."

"After my debut, I told my mother that I wanted to live a life before they married me off. I wanted to live several lives. I wanted to do things."

"What did she say?"

"She said alright, of course," Ruka flipped onto her belly and propped herself up on her elbows. "She said I could do anything I wanted. She told my father and they didn't oppose at all."

Kain frowned. "So why didn't you leave?"

Ruka didn't reply, eyes downcast. She played with a lock of her hair, lying on the ground.

"I couldn't think of anything," she said finally, her voice subdued. "I had my own reins, and I had no idea where to go."

She paused, and smiled. "I was really very happy when Kaname-sama came to us with his proposal. The Academy is a relief, at the very least."

"I'm sorry," he told her.

She looked at him blankly. "For what?"

"Not helping," Kain said slowly, frowning. "In retrospect, I could have. I knew you'd wanted to escape. Your brother Azuma told me what you'd asked your mother. I was living with Hanabusa in Switzerland, while you were locked within the boundaries of the patriarchy. We never thought to bring you with us."

Ruka looked surprised. "Don't apologize," she told him, then, "I didn't know either of you left the country."

"Yeah," he grinned at her. "We took fifty years or so and went everywhere. Uncle Aidou didn't want to limit Hanabusa's mind. We went to college a few times."

"You what?" Ruka sat up and stared at him. "You didn't. When?"

"Once in the nineteen tens, once in the twenties, once in the fifties and the last time in the eighties," Kain shrugged. "We went to Cambridge first, then Princeton, then Harvard and Berkeley, in California."

"I had no idea," she stared at him. "How was it?"

"It was alright. It was more hectic than the Academy. Hanabusa had an awful habit of biting people left and right. It got really bad at Princeton. He went to too many parties."

At this, Ruka laughed. "Even running around after Hanabusa sounds infinitely better than what I was doing. Probably learning how to play the harp or something obsequious like that."

"Ah," he grinned at her. "But if you didn't know how to play _harp_, the other girls would beat you out for the most eligible bachelors, wouldn't they?"

"Don't be coy," she scrunched her nose delicately. "Your time will come. I wonder how many engagements you'll have to go through before Auntie just picks one?"

"Three, already," Kain said. "But they'd rather I pick for myself. Still, I'm sure there'll be a couple more before they actually sign for one."

Ruka sat up. "Wait, what?"

"She wants me to pick," Kain cocked his head. "My mother is a romantic, she is."

"No, the other thing. You've already been engaged?"

"Three times," he replied, nonchalantly. "Tsukiko Aidou first before I went to Scandinavia, then Kanae Kotonami, and Maron Touya just a couple of years ago. There were talks with Komaki Koizumi and Seiya Tsuga, too."

"I didn't know that," Ruka frowned. "I don't remember that at all."

"No," he said, "I suppose you wouldn't. The last one broke off just before we left for the Academy. That's why Rima's sister was at the induction ball, even though she wasn't coming with us."

"I remember Maron being there, but I don't remember any contract negotiations."

"You were preoccupied," he reminded her. "We were upstairs discussing the honor code with Kaname-sama, and we interrupted by Ichiou-sama. You went on a rage about how the Council was still trying to use him to assert their power the pro-monarchy faction. Hanabusa took you to get a drink, and I left for the negotiations. I suppose you just didn't notice."

"I can't believe I never heard. _Three _times." Ruka frowned. "Seiya and Komaki _go_ here. So does Kanae...and I've know Kanae for _ages_."

"There were no formal announcements," Kain shrugged it off. "Nothing official. No blood binding. They were Uncle's way of bringing Rima and Kanae's families into the Aidou Faction. And Kanae is contracted to Azuma now, isn't she? I assume Maron and Tsukiko will be making other matches soon."

"Still."

Ruka was pouting, clearly. Kain wanted to laugh at her, but he didn't think his amusement would be taken very kindly.

"Our lives as pawns in political games," the redhead mused. "It is rather sad, isn't it?"

"I don't think about it much," Ruka replied. "I used to, before we came here. It was such a big part of my life."

"Sorry, Ruka."

He paused. "After we get out of here, let's take a month's vacation."

"What?"

"We'll go to Shanghai," he decided. "We can take Hanabusa, or not."

"Akatsuki."

"You've got a few decades, at least, before you'll be expected to marry," Kain fixed his eyes on her. "Make the most of it. I'll speak to your father."

"Akatsuki," she sighed. "You're always taking care of me. I'm not a child, you know."

"I know."

"I'm not weak, either. I can take care of myself. You don't need to worry so much."

"After that spiel?" he shrugged. "I don't worry, not really. But I can help you if I want to."

Ruka frowned. "Eventually I've got to learn to sort things out myself. You can't mother hen me forever."

"Can't I?" he smiled. "You're right, of course. It's just a matter of habit, Ruka. I've always looked out for you."

"You have, haven't you?" she sighed, her chin propped on one hand. "We've known each other so long. But how is it that you recall everything I do, but I don't really know a thing about you?"

"You have other things to concern you," Kain closed his eyes. "Kaname-sama, for one."

"That's not fair," Ruka retorted. "You stopped telling me things."

"I didn't."

"You did," she snapped. "I have no idea what you did. I have no idea what you still do. You never talk to me about your life, you never tell me."

"I didn't think you would care about the insignificant comings and goings of my life," he said. His tone came out more biting than he had intended. It surprised them both.

"I care," she said, defensively. "Why wouldn't I? You always support me. It's not fair if you don't give me the chance to reciprocate."

"No," he said, "It's not, is it?"

Ruka bristled. "I'm not in the wrong here. I can't read your mind, Akatsuki."

"No," he said, "You can't."

"I never stopped confiding in you. So why did you stop confiding in me?"

"I stopped," he said, "Because you stopped listening."

She froze, head snapping to the side, eyes fixed on his impassive face. Kain remained silent.

Slowly, Ruka raised herself up, dusted off her skirt, and left. She knew he wouldn't follow, not this time.

**-x-**

He walked into the bedroom ten minutes later to find her curled up on the bed, head buried in a pillow. She was pretty sure he knew exactly what had gone on in her head.

"When did we start drifting apart, Akatsuki?" the brunette demanded when he entered, her head buried in her lap. "This is ridiculous. Me, you, even that idiot Hanabusa…we were always together. We knew everything about each other. We did everything together. What happened?"

Ruka looked up for a split second as Kain sighed, plopping himself down beside her. "Ruka…"

"There's suddenly all these things that I don't know about," her voice was muffled, hiding the slight edge in her tone. "When did this happen? When…when did we start distancing ourselves from each other? I don't know anything about you anymore…" she trailed off. "I still don't understand how. What did I do wrong?"

Their banter was so formulaic. Ruka would bare her thoughts, and Kain, ever the knight in shining armor, would reach out to help. She couldn't remember the last time their roles were reversed. She couldn't remember the last time he'd asked anything of her. She could number in the hundreds the times he had listened to her, helped her, supported her, taken care of her. But she couldn't remember the last time she had stopped, for a second, to listen to him. He'd never given her the opportunity to.

But why was it her fault?

They sat there in a stifling silence, before Kain stood up.

"You say 'we', Ruka," he started, gently. She stiffened, clutched her pillow closer to her face. He sighed.

"It doesn't matter. I was there anyways."

Kain turned, and left promptly left the room.

**-x-**

Ruka emerged an hour later, eyes ringed with red. He was waiting with the TV on, a pile of movies sitting lopsided at his feet, food and beverages scattered on the table, and the massive marble fireplace in the corner crackling loudly. The thick drapes had been drawn across the French doors, and the rosy hues of the impending sunrise peeked from the edges.

It was colder than she had expected, and, with as much dignity she as she could muster, Ruka stalked forward to the couch, sitting as far away from Kain as physically possibly, tucking her cold toes under her legs and wondering if the best course of action may be to just pretend that nothing had transpired. Ruka was not one for confrontation. She liked to breeze over problems. Kain, however, did not.

"Come over here," he said finally, his amber irises peeking from the corner of his eyes to fix on her slightly trembling form. She hesitated, before sliding closer. He conjured up his coat from nowhere, and offered it to her.

She didn't budge.

"Come on, Ruka," Kain draped thick, warm wool over her shoulders. "Looking at you is making me nervous."

"Sorry," she turned towards him, but averted his eyes. He knew she wasn't referring to his prior comment.

"I don't blame you," he told her. "I never have."

Reaching out, he pulled her into the crook of his arm. She closed his eyes, taking in a lungful of his warm, welcoming scent. This action was so, so familiar. He did it whenever he thought she needed comforting, whenever he thought she needed a bulwark, whenever he thought she was in danger. She rested her chin on her knees, glad for the body heat. She didn't know why she felt so cold.

"I was blaming you," Ruka replied, fixing her eyes on the glowing screen of the television. "I didn't mean to. I didn't really think – I didn't want to be the only one at fault."

"I know you didn't mean it."

"I did mean most of it," she insisted, frustrated. "You were right, Akatsuki. I was selfish. I thought I knew everything. I always think that, and I'm almost always wrong. Why didn't you stop me?" Ruka stared at him, half pleading, half anxious. "What happened that I wouldn't listen to you anymore?"

"I left of my own accord, you know," he replied, turning towards her. "I do have some will of my own. It wasn't just you, Ruka. I thought you were happier that way."

The brunette sighed, leaning back into the couch.

"I guess this is a bit of a blessing then," she smiled wryly up at him, "We can get reacquainted. Back to normal."

Kain reached over to tuck a stray piece of hair behind her ear, and frowned, alarmed at the sudden heat of her skin. She was still shivering.

"Ruka, are you sick?"

"No," she bit insistently, "I'm just a little cold, that's all."

"Ruka, it's about eighty five in here."

"Can't be," the brunette snapped, curling around herself, "It's freezing."

"Ruka, the heat is on, and the fire is on." He put a hand to her forehead. "And I think you have a fever."

"That's impossible," Ruka frowned, lifting a head to touch her right temple. Kain ignored her. With one single, practiced motion, he scooped her up into his arms and beelined for the bedroom door. Ruka protested, loudly.

"Your immune system has pretty bad timing," Kain told her, stepping over the threshold. He nudged her pillow back to the headboard with an elbow and deposited her gently down into the bed. She sat up immediately, propped on her elbows.

"Akatsuki, I'm _fine,_" she hissed. "It's not even eight yet, I'm not going to bed."

"I'm sure you don't want me to dress you _for_ you," he replied, unfazed, tossing her nightshift at her feet, pulling up a chair by the nightstand, and plopping down. With a vicious glare, Ruka dove over the edge of the bed. Kain was faster. He stood in the doorway, an immovable wall, staring down at her expectantly.

"I hate you," she told him.

"Ruka," Kain sighed, running a hand over his hair. "You're being obstinate. It's extremely difficult to adjust to the hormone influxes of the season when your body is weak. Just rest so we can pass this week without incident."

"I'm fine," she insisted again, avoiding his eyes. He frowned at her. She relented, turned, and pulled off her dress unceremoniously, slipping the eyelet lace tunic quickly over her cold body. There was something exceptionally odd about the quaking coldness penetrating her body. She could not suppress the tiny whimper escaping her lips as she slid into the icy covers.

"What's wrong?" Kain was beside her, a worried expression fixed on his face, before she saw him move.

"It's cold," she whispered. There was a dull burning sensation on her forehead. She felt chilled, and hot, and dizzy. Without another word, Kain began unbuttoning his shirt. Ruka sat up and stared at him, suddenly alert.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting in," he replied.

"No," she blanched, then, "Why?"

"I'm a fire craft-user, my body temperature runs ten degrees higher than normal," he explained, lifting the comforter and sliding under. "You said it was cold. I've already turned the heat up. I don't see any other way to solve your problem."

"But you're dirty," Ruka protested desperately, "_I'm_ dirty. We're making the bed dirty."

"Nonsense. We haven't been outside all day."

"But —" she sighed, closing her eyes at the comforting sensation of heat diffusing towards her, "Akatsuki, honestly, this is not a good idea."

"Don't worry. I'm not going to do anything."

He picked up the remote from his bedside table, turned on the television across from the bed and reached an arm towards her. Ruka, disoriented and suddenly weary, shuffled over and settled into the warmth of his side.

"Better?" Kain looked down to see the brunette curled up into a little ball at his side, head buried between her chest and his.

"My head is splitting open," she moaned.

"It'll be better in the morning," Kain frowned. "Let me get you some water."

She grunted in protest as he slid away, careful to adjust the volume on the television before he left. Ruka curled into a ball, shivering under the thick duvet, and Kain took a second to consider his options. Dimming the lights and closing the door, he marched towards the kitchen. Pulling three crystal glasses from the cabinet, he filled the first with plain water, and dropped two tables in the second. The third he set aside, heating water in the coffee maker.

The silence in the suite was cut by twin beeping sounds blaring loudly from the living room. Kain set the glasses down, crossed the doorway and looked around, trying to locate the source of the gratingly irritating sound. He found one of the flashing silver intercom discs under the coffee table and flipped it open.

"Rima," Shiki said from the screen, "Hang up, I have Kain."

"Okay," Rima's voice floated from the right of Shiki. The noise emanating from the door next to the kitchen fell silent.

"How's it going, Kain?" the black-haired boy asked, eyeing the redheaded vampire. Rima appeared beside him, eyes wide.

"Why aren't you wearing a shirt?" she questioned testily.

"It's only Monday," Shiki followed up, his tone slightly awed. The redhead scowled, making his way back to the kitchen and emptying several spoonfuls of powdered hot cocoa into the boiling water.

"It's how I sleep," he replied calmly.

"It's seven in the morning," Rima deadpanned, examining her cuticles. "You're sleeping at seven in the morning?"

"No. I'll sleep at eleven," Kain stirred the cocoa with one hand, the other feeling for a Lazy Susan somewhere on the top shelf, eyes fixed on the screen. "Ruka's sick."

"Oh," Rima looked up from her nails. "Why?"

"I don't know," he informed her, "I think she has a fever."

"Symptoms?"

"She says she's cold, but she's burning up," Kain reported, placing each glass onto the tray he had located. Paused. "And her head hurts."

Rima frowned, and turned towards Shiki.

"Go away for a second."

"Okay." Shiki vanished, rather obediently. Rima turned back towards the screen, twirling a pigtail around one dainty finger.

"So," she said, her gaze pointed, "Did something happen today?"

"Nothing really," Kain decided, then reconsidered. "We had a minor disagreement."

"About what?"

Kain shrugged. "Personal stuff. We talked about how she feels stifled, and…some stuff she didn't know about."

"What stuff?"

"Just things that Hanabusa and I did that she didn't know we did."

"That's odd," Rima frowned. "That shouldn't upset her."

"Well," Kain sighed, setting the intercom down on the tray. "I lost my temper a little."

"That's very unlike you."

"I know."

"What did you say?"

"Too much," he said wryly. "She was upset that I never told her about being engaged to Maron and them. I told her she didn't listen."

"Ugh," Rima rolled her eyes. "I've been telling her that for ages. You two have such an unnecessarily complicated relationship. I feel sorry for the both of you."

"Don't," he told her.

"Well, I'm sure she felt terrible after what you said."

"I talked to her. It's not a big deal."

"Well, of course it was a big deal. She's sick, isn't she?"

"I'm not following your line of thought."

Rima sighed. "It's nothing serious. Ruka's just throwing a tantrum."

Kain raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand."

"She's an illusion craft-user, Kain," Rima wrinkled her nose. "She's making herself sick."

"That's absurd," he deadpanned. Rima snorted.

"She's punishing herself," the blonde said patiently. "She's been doing this since she was, what, seventy? You know," here, Rima paused, and fixed Kain with a pointed stare, "For someone who's so in tune with Ruka, I'm surprised you never caught on."

"I didn't realize," Kain frowned. "Why would she…?"

"I'm sure she felt rightly guilty for dirtying your friendship or something," Rima said matter-of-factly. "And as much as she listens to you, she's not going to stop feeling guilty just because you told her to."

"This is a problem," Kain decided. The blonde shrugged nonchalantly.

"I don't think she does it on purpose. She was throwing up for days after she found out about Yuuki-sama being a pureblood."

"Still – "

"There's human medicine in one of the kitchen cabinets," Shiki interjected, popping back into the screen. "It works."

"You better go," Rima said. "Don't worry, it'll be fine in an hour or two. Just watch your tongue. Go, go." She waved her hands at him. Kain smashed the screen closed and stuffed it in his pocket, taking a moment for himself to slam his forehead against a cabinet in frustration. He took a deep breath, checked that the chocolate was still warm, and crossed the living room. Ruka was fast asleep on the bed, curled up and breathing softly. He set the tray down by the window, and crouched over to check her temperature. It had lowered, but not much. A tendril of guilt curled up in Kain's stomach.

At the touch of his hand, Ruka stirred, and nudged her head at his arm, brow furrowed in sleep. Leaning slightly, he planted a kiss on Ruka's forehead, smoothing her honey-gold hair with his hand. Her body relaxed noticeably. Kain brushed her bangs out of her eyes with light fingers, and decided to pull on a t-shirt for safety's sake. He slipped under the covers, one arm slung over the pillows above Ruka's head, and grabbed the remote sitting on the nightstand. Ruka slid closer to him, pressing her fevered brow against his side, arm draped carelessly on his chest. He shook his head, a faint smile on his lips.

_Stupid girl._

**-x-**

Two hours later, Ruka awakened, bolting upright in confused alarm. Kain had dozed off beside her, but his eyes snapped open the second she moved.

"Do you feel better?"

Ruka turned and stared at him. She seemed to calm down when she noticed him, seemed to remember where she was – her eyes widened by a fraction, and he saw her cheeks flush with embarrassment before she buried her head back into her pillow. "Fine," came the muffled reply.

"I talked to Rima."

Ruka blanched.

"Don't worry about it," he told her, tugging at the corner of the pillow gently. "Are you hungry? Would you like anything?"

"Yeah," Ruka sniffed, extricating herself from the bedsheets and sitting up. "I can get it."

"Your temperature's still a little high," Kain frowned at her. "I'll get you dinner. Take it easy."

"Akatsuki," she looked up at him intently. "I don't ever want to be a burden, not to you. I can take care of myself. I mean it."

He smiled at her, a warm, gentle expression. "You would never be a burden."

Kain patted her head rather absentmindedly and got out of bed – he was wearing a shirt this time, thank God – and headed for the door. Ruka groaned as soon as it shut, plopping down onto the bed, hugging her pillow to her stomach. She did still feel a little disoriented – but it wasn't as bad as before. Her behavior, almost the entire day, had been completely out of line. She had no idea how to explain herself. Worse, she wasn't sure if she wanted to. Ruka couldn't account for her indignation, her offense or her unnecessary reaction to the simple, honest statements Kain had made. Her thoughts were jumbled and confused. She didn't know where to start.

The silver disk on Kain's nightstand began beeping madly. With a wry twist of her lips, Ruka picked it up and popped it open.

"Oh, hey, Ruka."

She scowled.

"Hanabusa."

The blond vampire grinned at her. "I heard you were locked in with Kain. Actually, I heard it last night. Shiki and Rima told Ichijou and Kanae and me. I just figured out how to transmit to your room."

"That's nice," she sighed and sat up, composing herself. "What do you want?"

"Well, I'm a little worried."

"Yes, we heard that one already," she replied drily. "There's nothing we can do about that, except kill Kurosu the second we're out."

"I have my own reasons. Listen, Ruka – "

The disc gave another chirp, and the screen split, Rima's face now dominating the left side.

"Hey, Ruka," she gave a little wave. "Feel better?"

"Yeah," Ruka nodded as Aidou stared in confusion.

"Who's on the other side?" he demanded.

"Rima."

"Conference me," the blond boy demanded. Ruka stared at Rima helplessly.

"How do I conference you?"

"I don't know. Shiki!"

A hand appeared, and typed on Rima's keypad before disappearing. Aidou lit up, a popsicle appearing from nowhere and landing in his mouth.

"Hey, Rima."

"Hey, Aidou."

"Actually I guess it's pretty convenient of you to show up. I was going to express my concerns about Ruka and Kain living together, especially _now_." The genius grinned. "Rima, you know what I'm talking about, right?"

"I don't think it's any of our business," Rima replied blandly. "I'm just checking in to see if she's better."

"Why? What happened?"

"I was sick."

"Really? How?"

"It doesn't matter. What were you saying?"

"Right," Hanabusa's head turned a little. "Rima, you're _control_. If it's anybody's business, it's _yours_."

"What?" Ruka scowled at the screen, popping tablets into water in the kitchen. "Tell me."

"Well," Hanabusa had an extremely Chesire-esque grin on his face. "You're really _oblivious_, Ruka, you know that?"

"Or," Rima held up a finger. "Or, she is a cold, cruel bitch who uses other people's feelings for her own benefit."

Ruka glared. "Excuse me?"

Rima shrugged. "Well, I don't know. Anyone else with eyes can see Kain loves you. Even Shiki. Right, Shiki?"

A thumbs-up appeared from the right. Aidou groaned. "Rima!"

"What?"

"_I_ was going to say it."

"That's too bad."

Ruka frowned, and interrupted. "Of course he loves me," she said blankly. "He's like a brother to me – don't pout, Hanabusa, so are you. We've known each other for ages, and we get along swimmingly – or, I guess, we did." Ruka sighed. "We've been drifting apart. I hadn't even noticed. You too, Hanabusa," she added, quickly. "Akatsuki and I were talking about it. You two are always watching out for me, and I was taking you for granted. I've been pigheadedly pursuing my own fantasies for a little too long now. And I'm sorry."

Rima and Hanabusa blinked at her in astonishment.

"She's extremely stupid," Hanabusa finally scowled.

"Or she's just in denial."

"Either way, she's dumb."

"Or in denial."

"What?" Ruka glared. "I'm still here."

"I don't understand how someone could misinterpret a sentence like _Kain loves you_," Aidou wailed.

"The Day Class girls would be more than happy to misinterpret it for her," Rima offered.

"Well, we're not talking about those idiots, we're talking about _this_ idiot."

"Hey," Shiki appeared before Rima could reply, "We have to check on the rest of them now. Ichijou was going crazy in his library last night and I need to make sure he hasn't had an aneurysm or something."

"But this is _important_," Aidou insisted.

"She'll figure it out," Shiki replied stoically, smiling at Ruka encouragingly before slamming the disc shut, leaving Aidou to face his cousin alone. And her imperious glare was making him lose his nerve.

"Hanabusa," Ruka said very, very patiently, "What are you talking about?"

The blond sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. It was time to prove his balls were made of steel.

"Listen, Ruka," Aidou began, licking his lips. "Like you said, we're always looking out for you. And I love you, you know that, right? I mean, you're a bitch a lot of the time, but I do care about you. But you have to have noticed that I don't do _half _the things Akatsuki does for you. You've noticed that, right? Please tell me you're not _that_ dense."

"We're close," Ruka frowned.

"No," Aidou snapped. "Goddammit, Ruka. He's not following you around like a damn puppy dog because he loves you like his _sister_. Listen to me. When Kaname-sama asked us to come to the Academy, Akatsuki was the one who suggested you. He wanted to cut you from your gilded cage. When my father wanted him to marry Rima's sister, he said no because if he'd agreed, he wouldn't have been able to come with us. And he couldn't leave you alone, to fend for yourself and nurse your own delusions. When Kaname-sama broke your heart, he knew. He knew _every single time_. He was there to help you pick yourself up. He spent nights outside your door when you cried. He places you above everyone else. He values your safety above his own. He is more loyal to you than he is to Kaname-sama. When it comes to you, he has no inhibitions, he never hesitates. He knows your every fear and your ever hope and your every hurt. He knows what it means when your _pinky_ twitches. Every little thing, he does for you. He does things for you that are so infinitesimal that I don't even notice. Do you understand me?"

Ruka didn't reply. Aidou sighed.

"I know you guys fought today. Rima told me. You know Akatsuki doesn't lose his temper easily. You scared the hell out of him when you realized what you had done. You showed him a lot of possibilities, but then you blamed him for doing what he thought was in your best interest. You hurt him, Ruka, and I know you didn't mean to, but you did. Just like you thought he hurt you. Are you listening to me? Because you two are driving me fucking insane."

Aidou gave a frustrated groan at Ruka's blank stare.

"Ruka, _Akatsuki is in love with you_. _Do you understand me_? He would _die _for you. He's in love with you, and he has been since he met you. And _that is why I am so fucking concerned_. He could hurt you this week, Ruka. You are locked in that room with a man whose actions and emotions may fly out of his control. If the hormones take over, Akatsuki could seriously hurt you. And then I don't know what I would do, because there is no way you could recover and no way he would ever be able to come to terms with that. I need you to _pay attention. _Are you listening to me? Ruka!"

"Hanabusa," she said, silencing the furious blond. "I know."

**-x-**

_And I told you to be patient,_

_And I told you to be fine_

_And I told you to be balanced,_

_And I told you to be kind_

_And now all your love is wasted, so who the hell was I?_

_Cause now we're breaking at the bridges, and at the end of all your lines._

**-x-**

_**Next time...**_

"It's not my fault!" he whined. "You were the one who told her!"

"And you were the one who decided to pirouette off the handle!"

* * *

___**A/N:**_ I'm a lot happier with this now. It's much less...stupid. I'm trying to make this story a lot less extemporaneous, with fewer blatantly contrived scenarios. There should be reasonable amounts of foreshadowing for most of the events in the following chapters. The ending will make more sense. I said it would be different.

Italicized lyrics are from _Skinny Love _by Bon Iver, but everybody knows that.


	3. Tuesday

_Disclaimer:_ Vampire Knight belongs to Hino Matsuri.

* * *

_Will you be pulled from the ocean, but just a minute too late?_

_Or changed by a potion and find a handsome young mate for you to love?_

_You'll be damned to pining through the windowpanes,_

_You know you'd trade your life for any ordinary Joe's,_

_Well do it now, or grow old._

_Your nightmares only need a year or two to unfold._

-**x-**

**TUESDAY**

**-x-**

_Ring. Ring. Ring_. _Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring..._

Aidou sat, agitated, in front of his window, one hand clutching a glass of wine, the fingers of the other tapping on the glass top of the bistro table in syncopated annoyance at the perpetual dial tone emanating from the intercom sitting in front of him.

_Ring. Ring_. _Ring._

On the fifteenth ring, the disc gave a muted beep. Rima's face appeared on the screen, looking rather bedraggled, midway through tying her hair up in her signature ponytails.

"Finally!" Aidou exploded, slamming his wine glass onto the table and seizing the 'com. "What took you so long? I've been calling you for _eight hours_!"

"Sorry," Rima replied nonchalantly, settling into a chair in front of her comlink screen. "Shiki set all the machines in the control room to silent before he went to bed last night."

"What?" Aidou spluttered. "You two are supposed to be _overseeing_ us, why would _silent _sound like a good idea?"

"Ichijou kept calling," she yawned. "He built a fort out of the bookshelves in the library and Shiki wanted to sleep. What do you want?"

"Right," Aidou paused, and composed himself. "Right. Well, I thought I'd let you know that I kept talking to Ruka last night, after you unceremoniously dropped first the ball and second, out of the conversation."

"What did you say?"

"Probably too much. She was acting like she had no idea what I was talking about, so I spelled it out for her. You know, how he's been head over heels in love with her for forever, and he'd die for her and so on, and that it would be just plain _ignorant _for her to keep refusing to see that."

Rima grunted in exasperation. "And? What happened?"

"She said she _knew,_ and then she hung up on me!" Aidou all but shrieked, throwing his free hand in the air in animated exasperation. "What the hell is that? What the hell does she mean, she knew?"

"Did you try calling her back?" the blonde girl asked flatly. Aidou stared at her in sheer disbelief. Rima rolled her eyes.

"Of _course_ she knew. That's why I told you it was _none of your business_."

"What – ?"

"Ruka's not stupid, Aidou," Rima frowned. "She may be prickly, but she's very aware of others, just like Kain is. There's no way she didn't know."

"Then why – ?"

"She isn't a very tolerant person," the pigtailed girl clarified. "She's not the type to waste unnecessary amounts of time dealing with people. If Ruka doesn't like you, she doesn't bother with you at all. But she's loyal to her friends. You of all people should know that. You annoy the bloody hell out of her and she still lets you barge unceremoniously into our room at the most unimaginable hours. With or without my permission, I might add."

Aidou scowled. "What's your point?"

"My point is," Rima sighed. "Ruka isn't the type to hurt people unnecessarily, especially not people she's close to. But like you and I have noted, she treats Kain rather cruelly. And there's no way she didn't realize at all what she was doing."

"So?"

"So," Rima threw her hands up in exasperation. "So, Mr. Genius, that means the only reason Ruka would treat him like she's treated him is _because_ she knew. She cares about Kain. She kept him at a distance to prevent him from getting more attached; obviously, it didn't work. She didn't want to hurt him by encouraging him, since she was in love with Kaname-sama, but she didn't want Kain to go away, either. For Ruka, there wasn't much room for error, which is just one of a multitude of reasons she's been so gloomy and tense."

Aidou blinked at her.

"How do you know all of this?"

"I live with her," Rima deadpanned. "Sometimes when you live with people they talk to you."

"She never talks to me," the blond man pouted a little.

"No, because you do things like this," Rima said snappishly, gesticulating wildly. "You go and confront her about the whole soap opera, and what does that accomplish? All this time she's telling herself everything and anything to keep her absurdly self-deprecating guilt at bay, and now you and Kain both have gone and pushed it in her face. Honestly, don't either of you _think_?"

He cringed at her disdainful gaze. "I'm not the _sensitive _one!"

"No, you're not," Rima said sharply. "But some things you should've taken into consideration. Or have you forgotten? Ruka just came to terms with the fact that the only relationship she will ever have with Kaname-sama is friendship. No matter how close that friendship is or how much he assures her he trusts her, friendship is all it will ever be. She's only just acknowledged that, and she's been in love with him for decades so I'm sure she's still heartbroken, but you're all but slapping her in the face and forcing her to face the implications of her actions towards Kain, and trying to make her reconcile them with feelings that _may or may not be there_."

Rima took a deep breath, calmed herself, and sighed.

"She isn't ready for that, Aidou," she shrugged matter-of-factly, "Ruka isn't ready to try and figure what her feelings towards Kain are. For now, where she stands with him is something she shouldn't have to worry about. For all your grand speeches about warning her, you've miscalculated. You'll be singlehandedly responsible for making their current situation infinitely more awkward that it would've been if you'd just left them on their own."

Aidou's eyes widened. "Oh, _shit_."

"Yeah," the blonde girl shook her head. "You should know Ruka's temperament as well as anyone, you grew up with her. The more uncomfortable she is, the more hostile Ruka gets. And by Wednesday, hostility is just going to provoke him. You're doing her anything but good."

"It's not my fault!" he whined. "You were the one who told her!"

"And you were the one who decided to pirouette off the handle!"

Aidou pouted. Rima rolled her eyes.

"So thanks a lot, _sempai_."

**-x-**

Kain opened an eye and paused, face half-buried in his pillow. The TV was still on. He didn't remember falling asleep. He hadn't intended to.

He sat up slowly, stretching splayed fingers towards the empty space beside him. There was no warmth, not even a remnant of body heat. The imprint her body might have made on the mattress was gone. The pillow looked untouched. The sheets and comforter weren't recklessly thrown aside; they had been smoothed and tucked tightly to her side of the bed, the tension creating the illusion that there was a body lying, asleep, somewhere near him. But Ruka hadn't been beside him for a long time now.

Kain's brow furrowed as he pulled the thick coverlet from his body. He swung his long legs off the edge of the bed, picking up the clock beside his bed as he grappled in the dark for a pair of pants. He had woken much later than usual; it was almost midnight. When had she left? And more importantly, how in _hell_ did he not notice? In the dark, Kain located a white turtleneck and a pair of jeans in his open, unorganized suitcase, still sitting on the floor between his side of the bed and the window vomiting moonlight. Ruka's luggage had sat close by, but now it was missing – Kain frowned, vaulted across the bed and pulled open the door to the walk-in closet beside the bathroom entrance.

Ruka's collection of clothes hung neatly on its left side, pressed and organized. Her dresses and blouses were ordered by length and color along the bar, pants and skirts neatly folded and stacked on the shelves beneath, scarves and belts hanging off of a rack near the entrance. A number of closed, zipped suitcases stood neatly against the back wall, to the left, leaving space for his should he chose to unload his own luggage. She'd unpacked and tidied up while he slept. Kain's frown deepened. He'd slept through _Ruka _fixing her _closet._ Grabbing a black blazer from another suitcase and slinging it over his shoulder, he swiftly marched out the bedroom door.

The white lace curtains hung in front of the French doors, floating gently from the breeze of the air conditioning. An empty glass sat on the bistro table, and a silver intercom disc – his – lay beside it. Kain nudged the disc with a finger. He didn't remember leaving it there. Within his peripheral vision, a flowy green dressing gown – undoubtedly Ruka's – hung over the back of a chair, folded carelessly in half and casually deposited in its place. Kain picked it up, turned, and found what he was looking for. His nose alerted him to her location before his eyes did. A deep, fruity scent floated from the living room, entangled with thick, floral accents – Ruka's scent, warm and sweet, a delicious mix of red plum, fig, pomegranate, freesia, white lily, cherry blossom and peach. The scent alarmed him – it was unusually strong, strikingly noticeable – but he dismissed the thought, taking long strides towards the center of the room. Long honey brown locks were pooling on the floor in front of the couch, spilling over the precipice of the cushions and falling over the arm. Kain padded silently across the carpeted expanse to stand over the silent figure, the corner of his lips fixed in a perpetual frown.

Ruka was asleep. A stiff decorative pillow was sandwiched between her pallid cheek and one folded arm, a thin, crochet blanket tucked under the crook of the other. The open-weave blanket was wrapped loosely over her frame, and Ruka herself was clad only in a thin lace-and-chiffon nightgown. Slowly, silently, Kain lowered himself into a crouch, bending until his face was level with hers. Her eyelashes cast tiny shadows on her cheeks and fluttered lightly in her sleep; her breath played with a single lock of hair ticking her nose. Kain leaned over silently, and draped his jacket over her uncovered shoulders.

Her eyes snapped open.

"I'm not cold," Ruka said, her voice groggy with sleep. It was a second before she recognized the tall shadow looming over her. She gave a startled "oh!" and scrambled, pulling her legs up to her chest, back ramrod straight, hands clasping the black blazer to her torso. "Akatsuki, what — oh."

Her voice dropped from scandalized to sheepish, the color on her cheeks deepening from a pale pink to a deep mottled red.

"What are you doing?" he asked, ignoring her blush. Ruka averted his gaze.

"I— well," she paused, and composed herself. "I didn't want to wake you up."

Kain raised an eyebrow at her.

"I woke up and you were still asleep," Ruka said slowly. "I was thirsty so I went for a drink in the kitchen…by the time I felt like going back to bed, it was late, and I didn't want to disturb you, so I grabbed a blanket from the library."

He didn't look too convinced, but shrugged calmly. "You wouldn't have woken me."

"It wasn't a problem," Ruka protested immediately. "The couch is actually quite comfortable."

"I can take it today," he said.

"There's no need – "

"Ruka," he fixed her with a pointed look. "I told you to tell me if you felt uncomfortable. I assure you I have absolutely no problem with the idea of adjusting our sleeping arrangements."

She had the grace to look embarrassed. "I'm not uncomfortable."

"Go get dressed, Ruka," Kain sighed, pulling her up gently by the arm and giving her a slight push towards the bedroom door. "It's cold."

"_Akatsuki_ —"

"I'm going to turn the thermostat up," he said. "We can talk about this later. Breakfast will be ready when you're done."

Ruka looked startled, and Kain tensed. The words had come out rougher than he had intended. He looked at Ruka expectantly, and she, always the proud one, straightened, steeled herself, and sauntered through the bedroom door, shutting it firmly behind her. Kain waited for the _click_ of the bathroom lock before releasing his breath.

Maybe he should've apologized – no. Kain frowned. He wanted her out of the room; he had a mild suspicion as to the reason behind Ruka's behavior. With his jaw set, Kain strode forward, swiping the intercom disc from the table, popping it open as he turned towards the kitchen. A brief scan of his caller history revealed that not one, but two numbers had been received before sunrise. Kain clenched his teeth with an aggravated groan.

He was pretty sure he knew who those numbers led to.

**-x-**

Aidou's eyes flitted nervously from the maniacally beeping mechanism in his hand to Rima's calm, controlled face on its screen.

"He's calling me!"

"Okay," said Rima.

"What do I do?"

"You pick up," she replied dully. "Oh, look, he's calling me, too. Hang on."

The screen of Aidou's intercom split in half — Rima pressing buttons on the left, Kain newly surfaced on the right. The blond man groaned.

"_Rima!_"

"Hanabusa," said Kain.

"Akatsuki," Aidou changed course immediately, composing himself as quickly as he could. "Good evening, and how are you doing?"

"I found Ruka sleeping on the couch," the redhead stated flatly, pulling pancake batter out of a cabinet. "I think you two have a bit of explaining to do."

"Not me," Rima cut in, "I have a video conference with the Chairmain in five minutes, and I have to wake Shiki."

"No you don't," Aidou interjected frantically, "You have a meeting at 12:41?"

"The Chairman is a very peculiar human," said Rima.

"Don't you dare! You did it!"

"Ciao," the pigtailed girl waved. Her side of the screen blacked out and receded. Aidou blanched.

"She did _what,_ exactly?"

Kain fixed his amber eyes on his cousin. The blond sighed.

"Well," Aidou paused, considered circumlocuting his way around the question, then decided against it. "Yeah, Rima and I talked to Ruka last night."

"What did you say to her?"

"Well, we – we kind of confessed your feelings for you."

Kain stared at the blond. "…what?"

"I was just going to tell her to be careful," Aidou sighed, looking rather repentant. "Don't worry, it wouldn't have been any less awkward if you'd done it yourself. Things got out of hand, I'm sorry."

"You – wait, you _what_?"

"We told her that you're in love with her, okay?" Aidou snapped. "We told her to watch herself."

Kain twitched visibly. "Why in _hell —_?"

"Look," Aidou put his hands up in defense, "It was Rima, she said it."

"_Hanabusa,_" Kain grit, putting a hand to his temples. "I assumed you did something stupid, but I didn't expect you to be capable of this _degree_ ofstupidity."

"Well, I'm really sorry, but it had to be done."

"What the hell were you _thinking_?"

"That it was high time we had it out in the open." Aidou sighed. "I really honestly have your best interests in heart, okay?"

"Do you really?" his cousin seethed. "Or did you just make this situation infinitely more uncomfortable than it otherwise would be?"

"Well – she kind of had to have known."

"_Really_, Hanabusa, thank you."

"I was concerned for her well-being, okay? I'm sorry."

"I'm probably going to kill you."

"Okay, that's a little extreme."

"Hanabusa," Kain growled, "Ruka and I were perfectly fine. Not _perfect, _but _fine. _But now, due exclusively to your meddling, we are going to be tiptoeing around each other for the next six days, which is _not going to make anything easier_."

"_Good_!" the blonde snapped, glaring at his cousin. "That's how it should be!"

Pause. Aidou cursed.

"Okay, that came out really wrong."

Kain snarled. "Are you _kidding me_?"

"Akatsuki — "

"This is what you _wanted_?"

"Well — "

"Have you gone _insane_?"

"_Akatsuki_!"

Kain paused at the edge in his cousin's voice. The blonde leaned forward, scowling.

"I get that you're mad, okay? And you're gonna kill me. Fine. I accept my bloody demise. But there's a reason I did it, and it's not because I wanted to be a smartass or I wanted to annoy you."

His cousin looked at him expectantly, his lips locked in a tight frown. The blond sighed.

"I know you adore Ruka and everything, but what is also a fact is that you either are or soon will be in no condition to tell the difference between love and lust. Don't look at me like that," Aidou frowned at Kain's furious expression. "Think about it. You're locked in a room with the girl you're pining after. Your body wants nothing but to act on that desire. Your feelings have the great potential to warp into something significantly more sinister when the hormones really start kicking in. As a result, and let's be realistic here, you won't be able to resist and you probably won't be able to stop yourself even if you wanted to."

"So you decided to intervene?" Kain scowled.

"I can't fully rely on the presence your sane judgment."

"But _yours_ is undoubtedly sound?"

"I'm not in any position to go batshit crazy and ravish the woman I love!" Aidou snapped, incensed. "Look, as far as I'm concerned, the more distance between you and Ruka, the _better_. In fact, I don't want her near you after Friday. Nobody, not even you, has that much self-control. I spoke to her because she needed to know the risks and the reason they're _astronomical_, and since there was literally no chance you'd be divulging, I took things into my own hands. Or would you rather she be defenseless in the face of your raging libido?"

Kain was silent. Aidou sighed.

"I care about Ruka, Akatsuki," the blond said, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, I provoke her a lot, but I do it because it's good for her. You people go fall over each other to give her whatever she wants every time she as much as twitches her little finger; she needs somebody to stand up to her once in a while."

"You _people_?"

"You, your family, her family, _my _family. Just whatever. Ruka's like a sister to me, Akatsuki. She's like a perpetual challenge. She's got more nerve and more backbone than any girl I know. In fact, I like her much more than I like Tsukiko." He paused, pictured his third sister, and scowled. "Witless little twit."

Kain raised an eyebrow. Aidou mumbled to himself for a moment, then threw his arms in the air in frustration.

"It doesn't matter!" he declared. "My point is I would really like it if you both make it through this week without incurring any physical or psychological damage and if telling Ruka what has been smack in her face for the last godforsaken century might make that more probable, then _fine_, disembowel me, I don't care."

The blond crossed his arms with a huff, a slight pout behind his glower, waiting for a response. Kain ran a hand through his hair, his cousin's words through his head, and finally sighed.

"I'm not going to thank you for this," he said.

Aidou brightened at Kain's mildly defeated tone. "I know." Then, "What are you going to do?"

"What am I going to do," the redhead repeated, gaze now diverted to the bowl of pancake mix he had abandoned on the countertop. "Diffuse the situation. I don't have a lot of options, do I?"

"Well, if you need my help — "

"I think you've done enough," Kain said, voice wrought with sarcasm. Aidou had the decency to look sheepish.

"Well," said the blond, "If you're going to wing this then I'm out. I'd rather not be around when Ruka shows up."

"Don't worry," Kain said wryly, "I don't think she's in any hurry."

**-x-**

Ruka walked out of the bedroom and recoiled immediately, smacked by the scent of Kain's skin.

Her chest tightened slightly, anxiety washing over her. The smell of cinnamon saturated the air, thicker and stronger than it had been the day before…she could pick apart, distinctly, the roughness of the ash, the sweetness of ripe apple, a trace of wood and a hint of warm, brown sugar. Muscles tensed, eyes closed, Ruka took a deep breath, and frowned. There it was. The reason behind her sudden apprehension. Not only did it dominate the premises, but Kain's natural scent now held a darker undercurrent that she had been unable to detect just hours earlier – Ruka could smell his blood.

He hadn't cut himself – the undercurrent was not strong, and it didn't have the sharp, metallic flavor of spilt blood. What she smelled was the syrup hidden under his skin, in his veins. It was a deep, caramelly scent, lightly lacing his natural aroma, barely noticeable, but definitely, certainly there. Ruka swallowed slowly. Her tongue was starting to feel thick and fuzzy with the effort of long-restrained thirst. She paused at this sensation and reined herself in – suppressing the natural instinct was difficult; she had felt the bloodlust rising in her veins, the thought _delectable _hitting her prefrontal cortex as she soaked in the hot, tempting smell of his blood, her body wound to spring for a hunt. Covering her nose with one slim, pale, hand, Ruka took a deep, calming breath through her mouth, just enough to check the hunger.

Tuesday. Her senses were getting more acute. This was just excellent.

With an exhale of determination, Ruka forced her body to relax, leaving the doorway and heading into the kitchen. Kain's scent was blatant but diffused — the source was not in the immediate area; he, at least, wasn't there. A covered silver dish sat on the marble counter by the door, next to a fresh, unopened bottle of blood tablets. Ruka could see an empty one sitting by the sink. There were pancakes under the cover, clearly blueberry but smelling heavily of cinnamon, and Ruka slammed the lid down, pinching her nose. She was hungry, but not for human food, not with the smell of blood lingering in the air. The intoxicating aroma was _everywhere_. She wondered if it was the same for him…Ruka shook her head, dumping an excessive six tablets into a glass of water, watching them sizzle as they dissolved into a supersaturated solution. Her body was starving and it wanted blood, but she wasn't going to get it – she was quite determined _not _to get it. The tablets would have to tide her over.

Ruka downed two glasses before the barbs of her bloodlust dulled into a mild ache. Taking deep, even breaths, she nursed another glass, waiting for the effect of the blood scent to wear off a little more. Undoubtedly she would run into Kain eventually, and she didn't want to reveal any indication of how tantalizing the idea of fresh blood would be. He would definitely offer, and that was something she definitely did not want to risk.

She ran a finger gingerly over the untouched breakfast he'd left for her and sighed. She had intended to sneak back to bed before he woke, but she had failed to notice the setting sun – undoubtedly the exhaustion of restraint settling in. She still hadn't figured out how she would respond to the questions he undoubtedly had. She wasn't confrontational – she was passive aggressive, she'd patented it – but she wasn't stupid enough to think ignoring the issue at hand would be an easy way out of it. For all she knew, it would create more problems than a direct altercation would. Nevertheless, Ruka had no idea what to say. She certainly had not expected Hanabusa to be so brazen. Maybe it would be best to avoid Kain entirely until she could figure out how to react. Ruka wondered if he would even ask – he was such an _intuitive _person, and he wasn't stupid, either. She ran a hand through the golden-brown waves draped over her shoulders and sighed. This was a situation she had not anticipated handling. Ruka needed advice.

Her eyes drifted over to the bistro table by the window as she walked out of the kitchen. Ruka halted, and frowned. She could have sworn she'd left an intercom there. Altering course, she popped back into the bedroom. A quick scan found a 'com disc at the foot of the bed, but there was no indication of ownership. With mild apprehension, the girl sat down gingerly, flipping the contraption open.

Rima's face popped up before the second ring. The blonde girl paused, looking a little surprised, but composed herself.

"Hey Ruka. How do you feel?"

"Better," Ruka frowned, taking a gulp of tablet mix. Rima's lip twitched.

"Hungry much?"

"It smells awful in here," Ruka said with a twist of her lips.

"Awful how?" Rima cocked her head. "Awful as in, something is dead and rotting awful? We can't fix the vents."

"My nose is going insane," Ruka replied wryly. "I've never been able to smell blood from inside people's bodies before."

"Oh," Rima paused. "I suppose that would be awful. Is Kain there, then? Did you talk to him?"

"No," Ruka shrugged. "I don't know where he is."

"But you can _smell_ him?"

"Yes."

"He's not in the same room as you, but you can smel his blood?" Rima looked skeptical. "Are you _sure_ it's blood?"

"Yes. Well, I think so. Frankly, it smells delicious."

"He could have cut himself or something," Rima tapped her chin. Ruka shook her head.

"No, it doesn't smell the same. Off the matter. I need to ask you something."

"Hang on," Rima grabbed a pad of paper from somewhere off-screen and started scribbling. "I should probably write that down. The Chairman will want to know."

"Nobody else is having this problem?"

"I keep reminding you, nobody else is _living with another person._"

"Fair," Ruka frowned. "Back to the point. I'm sure you know I did keep talking with Hanabusa after you left."

"I do know," Rima yawned. "He called me earlier, he told me what you said. I'm all caught up."

"Okay," said Ruka. "Well, I'm still not sure if this was an overreaction or not, but I did sleep on the couch last night. I was going to sneak back before he noticed, but I didn't. So he noticed."

"Yeah, I heard about that, too," Rima replied carefully, examining her perfect nail beds. "I'm _all _caught up."

Ruka blanched. "Did Akatsuki call you?"

"He called both Aidou and me at the same time," the other girl shrugged. "I think he used call return. But Aidou had just called me, so everybody told me everything concurrently. But I checked out of that train wreck before the yelling started."

"Okay," said Ruka, significantly stiffer. "Okay."

"Yes," Rima replied blandly. "So now you know, and he knows you know, and you know he knows you know. If you want, I can call him right now and he can know you know he knows you know."

"I was going to ask you what I should do, but you're being very unhelpful."

"Then I say go talk to him," the blonde suggested, unfazed. "There's no use tiptoeing around each other. I can't see what harm talking could do. You're good at talking, you do it so much."

"Don't be snarky," Ruka snapped. "I don't want to talk to him. It sounds awfully uncomfortable."

"More uncomfortable than...this?" Rima waved her hand carelessly in Ruka's general direction. "I guess you can go on being astronomically uncomfortable on your own. Or you can talk to him and the situation doesn't change and you're still astronomically uncomfortable, or what is most likely is maybe you figure things out and neither of you will be on edge by the time Friday rolls around. It's up to you. I'm not the one who has to live in that room, you know."

Ruka mulled this over, then sighed.

"That's annoyingly reasonable."

"Call me Rima Annoyingly Reasonable Touya," Rima deadpanned. "But if you're going to ask me for advice and I am going to go to all the effort of giving it, you might do me the service of listening to it. And when you find him, please remind both him and yourself that I have about eight other people to manage, in addition to you squabbling children. And then maybe you can figure out how to solve your problems on your own like big kids."

"Harsh," Ruka snorted. Rima sighed, picking at the cuticle of her left pinky.

"Really, Ruka. You handle Kain and Aidou more regularly than I do. I can't imagine why you think I am any help. My only point of reference is Shiki, who can neither understand nor reciprocate emotions."

"Hey," said a muffled voice from the side, in a tone that didn't sound as offended as it should be. Ruka rolled her eyes.

"Okay. I'm going to go find him."

"Let me know how it goes," said Rima, and hung up.

**-x-**

She found him in the same place she did the previous day, lying in the same spot, eyes closed, one arm crossed over his eyes, the other lying carelessly by his side. Ruka stepped lightly across the grass on bare, quiet feet, watching her shadow slowly slide over his body. She didn't dare breathe.

Unlike the previous day, he didn't acknowledge her at all. His body showed no awareness of her presence. She stood over him silently, against the light, watching the light movement of his reddish-gold hair in the artificial breeze, brushing over his smooth forehead, catching lightly on the fabric of his creamy white sweater. She watched the gentle up and down of his chest, the barely detectable sound of his breathing. A black blazer lay over his stomach, where the shadow of her arm hovered. Ruka lowered herself down onto the grass in a half-kneel, crouching forward, and gently lifted his hand from his face.

He had been asleep, she realized, but her action woke him. Kain inhaled deeply, eyes fluttering as he turned his face towards her. His expression shifted quickly between panic and confusion upon recognition, as he raised himself slightly to prop his body on bent elbows.

"Hey," Ruka said softly. She became suddenly conscious of his hand still in hers, and dropped it without hesitation. Kain's expression tensed, and Ruka berated herself for the action.

"I talked to Rima," Ruka said, when Kain showed no intention of initiating conversation. He didn't reply.

"She told me you'd talked to Hanabusa, too. So I guess we're all on the same page here."

Nothing.

"Okay," she was starting to feel slightly frustrated at his unresponsiveness, "Maybe you should say something."

He stared at her with an unreadable expression. Then,

"I don't know what I should say."

"That's fair," Ruka swallowed uncomfortably. "Well, I guess I'll talk, then."

He stared at her expectantly. Ruka sighed, and straightened.

"I suppose I should start with thank you."

"You're welcome," he replied stiffly.

"I'm very flattered," Ruka continued, then stopped at the blank look he was giving her. "Okay, this is absurd."

She abandoned her dainty kneeling position and leaned backwards, plopping down with her legs crossed.

"Okay, Akatsuki. Look. Here's what we're dealing with. You — love me, or so I'm told. And I didn't respond to that information as maturely as I could have, I can admit that. But this present situation is unbelievably uncomfortable."

Silence. Kain was still propped on his elbows, staring at her incomprehensibly.

"Okay," Ruka grit her teeth. "Maybe you should say something now."

He remained silent for a few moments, before he replied in a slow, even voice,

"Ruka, I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

"You're not," said Ruka. "It's not you."

Silence. Again, the silence.

"Ruka," Kain said, finally. "I do love you."

Ruka's breath caught in her throat, her body visibly tensing. He clearly noticed.

"I've loved you for a very long time. I never intended for it to burden you."

"I know," Ruka said quickly, then sighed. "What I mean is, it's not what Hanabusa said. I've guessed as much, for a while."

"Hanabusa mentioned that."

"Please don't take it the wrong way," she said quickly. "I never felt as if we needed to address the issue, so I didn't. And I never thought it would be openly said to me. So I was a little shocked last night, when Hanabusa did, and just now, I guess. I didn't expect it. I still don't expect it."

"Okay," said Kain.

"I'm sorry," Ruka frowned. "I didn't mean to ̶ to lead you on, or anything."

"You didn't."

"I just," Ruka looked down at her clenched hands, and took a deep breath. "I just ̶ I didn't want to give you a reaction, before I know what my reaction will be. And I'm afraid I've accidentally given you the wrong one."

Silence.

She heard him swallow with difficulty, and looked up. The look in his eyes was clear. Apprehension, mixed with hope. Mixed with concern. He was always concerned about her. She took another deep, slow breath, and steeled herself.

"What I'm trying to say is, I don't know how I really feel. About you. I've never tried to think about it. To be honest, I didn't _want_ to to think about it. I've never felt the need to qualify our relationship. I didn't want it to be unnecessarily complicated. I didn't want you to go away...I didn't want to say something wrong by accident, because I didn't know what to say."

He opened his mouth, but she barreled forward. "Looking back it may have made me rather cruel to you," Ruka said, her eyes averted back to the ground. "And I'm sorry, I truly am. What Hanabusa said last night — I knew. I thought he was asking me to reply. I can't yet," her shoulders slumped. "I overreacted, but I don't want us to be uncomfortable around each other, Akatsuki. This is just what I've wanted to avoid."

Kain straightened from his leaning position, crossing his legs to mirror her.

"Ruka," he said slowly, "I'm not expecting anything from you."

She looked up, tense. Kain continued.

"You said you knew, so what's the difference? We've been like this for years. I don't see why we can't continue on. I'm not mad at you, Ruka — I was worried. Ruka," his tone grew firmer as she opened her mouth to protest. "I'm serious. I never said anything because I'm not interested in pressuring you. I don't want our relationship to be any sort of complicated, either. I'm perfectly content being your friend, or your brother, and I'll be happy to be whatever you need me to be for you. I'm not hurt, I'm not offended; I want _you_ to be happy. Hanabusa, being probably the least subtle person on the planet, doesn't understand that. But I think you're smart enough to."

He smiled at her gently. "So clearly, there's no need for us to be uncomfortable around each other if we simply choose not to."

Ruka relaxed, and gave him a wry smile.

"You're better at talking things through than I am," she said almost reproachfully. He offered her a wolfish grin.

"I've had more practice, talking Hanabusa out of trouble for the last few decades."

She laughed. Kain smiled.

"Why don't we just forget what happened. It's not much different either way, really. Deal?"

Ruka looked at him incredulously. "I'm certain I won't simply forget about it. But I'll be quite capable of working around it."

"Good enough," Kain unfolded, and plopped back down on the grass. "Although, if you start acting up again, I'll be forced to be displeased with you."

"Be displeased with Hanabusa," Ruka frowned. "It's essentially his fault."

Kain shrugged. "Fault? I don't know. I don't know if I have the heart to blame Hanabusa for his sadly misguided attempts at helping."

"Helping?" Ruka sighed. "Sometimes I think everything he does, he does just to irritate me."

"Why is that?"

"You know we don't get along," she huffed, leaning back. "Hanabusa and I are always fighting."

"Ah," Kain grinned. "You know, Hanabusa told me that he likes you better than he likes his sisters."

Ruka looked startled. "Really? That's uncharacteristically nice of him."

"To be perfectly fair, Hanabusa doesn't hold his sisters in high regard."

"Oh. I guess of course not."

"But he seemed very sincere. He called Tsukiko a witless twit."

At this, Ruka burst into genuine laughter. "Did he? I can imagine. She's insipid."

"Never really anyone's favorite, Tsukiko Aidou."

"Well, I suppose it's less a matter of affection than acclimation."

Kain cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

"If you think about it," Ruka calmed, suppressing a final giggle, "When we were little, we all spent more time together, just the three of us, than with our siblings."

"Well, among our families we were the closest in age," Kain shrugged. "But Hanabusa didn't talk to his sisters even when you and I weren't there. He insisted on not interacting with them. His mother got really concerned that he was becoming a misogynist. I always thought it was odd."

"It was," Ruka snorted in a manner that was thoroughly unladylike, her tone laced with a fond contempt she reserved exclusively for Aidou. "I remember that. I was really annoyed. Hanabusa was so rude to Kagura and Tsukiko that they wouldn't come and play with me anymore, and then I only had boys to play with."

"Subaru played with you," Kain recalled. "She was our babysitter sometimes, even though Hanabusa pointedly ignored her whenever she was with us."

"I liked Subaru," Ruka smiled, "I'd always wanted a big sister. Subaru gave me an antique china tea set the first time I met Hanabusa. I was a little girl, and she was a full-fledged adult, and she was always so elegant and refined. I looked up to her a lot." Ruka paused. "She invited me to her wedding, six years ago. It was beautiful."

"I keep forgetting," Kain frowned, brow furrowing. "All of Hanabusa's sisters are much older than he is. I never see them anymore."

"Subaru is at least eighty years older, and Kagura's got a few decades on him," Ruka recalled. "Tsukiko's the youngest, but she was still born twenty odd years earlier. They all teased him endlessly about how _cute _he was as a kid. He's always so irritated that they don't take him seriously."

"I suppose that's one reason Hanabusa's not so fond of them."

"Well, that, and _he_ was taking himself really seriously as the only son of the family," Ruka rolled her eyes. "Before we met Kaname-sama, Hanabusa really thought he was the big fish. Once, Subaru made him follow my brother Koutei around for a week, when Koutei was doing all sorts of high-powered executive stuff. Hanabusa's ego deflated for a couple of months, after that."

"Do you visit her a lot? Subaru."

"No, not really," Ruka shrugged. "I went to an opera with Subaru and her husband once, a while ago. She married Kazuya-sama, from the Tokumori family. They're really a lovely pair. But I couldn't watch them without thinking what my life will be like. It made me claustrophobic."

"You think about the future a lot," Kain noted.

"I try not to," Ruka grimaced, "But sometimes, I just feel like...we're coming to that point in our lives where we are too old to keep doing as we please. Everyone is settling into their proper places. I don't feel ready for that, I feel like there's so much more I should be doing, but time just passes. I'm always just floating along. I'm doing nothing to make the most of the time I still have."

"You're here," he offered.

"Yes, I suppose I am," she said. "But what am I doing, really? In truth, though, I keep thinking how unavoidable a betrothal will be, but it won't really change anything will it? I'll just keep on going like I am now. I wish it wasn't like that."

Ruka sighed and smiled, wryly.

"Did you know Uncle Aidou and my father signed a blood contract between Hanabusa's sister Kagura and my brother Hizuki just a couple of years ago?"

"I hadn't heard," Kain ventured cautiously.

"Well, they did," Ruka examined a lock of hair curled around her index finger. "It's all very well, and Hizuki and Kagura have been friends for so long that it was pretty much inevitable, but what really brought it on is our parents want to strength our faction's ties by setting up marriages among the families."

"Is that so?" Kain cocked an eyebrow, a vague thought forming. He brushed it aside. "You're going to be directly related to Hanabusa?"

"To Kagura," Ruka corrected firmly, turning to look at him with a lightly curved lip. "God, I don't even want to _think_ about Hanabusa being my blood brother. But I do like Kagura, she's terribly clever; I think I'll really enjoy having her around. But it means she will have to stop acting. Kagura's been on the stage for years, in London. She'll have to give it up in a few years, when the date is set, to accommodate the change. But at the very least, Hizuki is very fond of Kagura."

"Then is that so bad?" Kain shrugged. "If Hizuki and Kagura were opposed to becoming husband and wife, I doubt Uncle Aidou and Uncle Soen would force it. Their sociopolitical ambitions are not all-engrossing. And Hizuki isn't the type of man to force his wife into subservience. Kagura's retirement sounds like a personal choice."

"But I won't have a choice," said Ruka, "I won't even have that choice to make."

She sat up, and pulled her knees into her chest, her expression once again grim. Kain wasn't sure how she'd gone from apologetic to relieved and back to melancholy in such a short span of time. It couldn't be healthy.

"Ruka," Kain frowned. "The families who support the oligarchy arrange marriages for bloodlines and political connections. _We_ don't get forced into doing things we don't want to do. Our parents have money and status, and they don't need more. And I doubt your parents, of all people, are going to marry you off to the highest bidder for the sole purpose of finding another pureblood to trace ancestry to."

"It's not a matter of what will happen anymore, Akatsuki," Ruka said, face now buried in her legs. "It's a matter of what has not happened. Truth be told, I don't think I'll mind being betrothed. I don't think I'll mind being a wife, either. But the finality of it scares me. I've already wasted half my life."

Kain didn't say anything. Instead, he sat up and put his arm around her shoulders. He wanted to tell her there was a clear solution, but he didn't want to voice it. Things were precarious enough. And suddenly, he couldn't tell if he meant it or not.

**-x-**

"Something I just thought of," said Rima. "We're worried about Ruka because in a few days Kain will be biologically compelled to want her, no matter how much willpower he has. But won't it be the same for Ruka, too?"

Aidou considered this. "You mean, she'll be biologically compelled to be drawn to him? That's probable."

"So," Rima said slowly, "In this situation, with all those stress and hormones…"

"What, are you really worried that they'll screw?"

Rima scowled. "Don't be crass, Aidou. And, no. They're smarter than that. If they're back to normal like you say they are, Ruka won't be in a position to provoke Kain and cause that to happen. But I'm worried about something else, before Sunday. I'm worried about the buildup."

"What?"

"No matter what Kain says to appease her, you've started the boulder rolling," Rima mused. "You've confronted her about her actions. She'll be trying to explain them. She'll reason out her feelings, like you wanted her to…but in the situation, with all the stress and constantly elevating hormones, I think Ruka has the potential to make a false decision."

"You mean — "

"I mean," Rima interrupted impatiently, "That while dividing them was a bad idea in the short term, reconciling them might be a bad idea in the long term. I'm not saying that Ruka can't genuinely love Kain, but if she interprets her hormonal impulses as that love and tells him so when it isn't true, she'll hurt him. Badly. And she'll hurt herself, too. So pretty much what I'm saying is they have the potential to completely destroy their relationship, on every and any level."

"Fantastic. What do we do?" Aidou sighed. "Scratch that; we can't do anything."

"No, we can't," Rima shrugged. "If we try to mess with them again, it will only make Sunday more and more dangerous. At this point, all we can really do is sit and watch, and hope he can keep himself in check and she can come to some sort of genuine conclusion."

"Well," Aidou frowned. "Watching and waiting is your job, isn't it?"

"Yeah," she intoned blandly. "But they keep making it way harder than it needs to be."

"Amen," said Aidou.

**-x-**

_Been alone since you were twenty-one,_

_You haven't laughed since January._

_You try and make like this is so much fun, but we know it to be quite contrary_

_But nothing happens every time I take one on the chin,_

_You don't know how long I have been watching the lighting dim,_

_Starved of oxygen,_

_So give me your hand, and let's jump out the window._

**-x-**

_**Next time...**_

"She killed about sixteen of them before we could slow the rest enough to go in and dispose of the remains."

* * *

_**A/N:**_ I wrote the beginning, then I wrote the end, then I went out of the country and when I got back I wanted to update so badly that I kind of just barreled my way through the middle. But I'll go back and fix that later.

I got a PM about the lyrics at the beginning at the end for the last two chapters. I assume nobody reads them, but just in case you do, yes, I do move things around and tweak them a little. They fit better when I force them to. I have a "One Week/Withering" playlist that I listen to when I write. It makes me write...better?

I'm really irritated because this fic never shows up on the front page when I update it. It really irks me. I get crotchety when I don't get reviews, and this is not getting exposed to very many new people. If you'd like me to update, please drop a review.

Italicized lyrics from _Australia _by the Shins.


	4. Wednesday

_Disclaimer: _Vampire Knight belongs to Hino Matsuri.

* * *

_Somebody's gonna love you_

_Somebody oughta lay you out_

_Don't give it away,_

_Cause I need you the most when I'm half of what I was when I was in your room._

_Turn everything off, just cover your neck, _

_Cause life is full of your regrets, and I should be one._

**-x-**

**WEDNESDAY**

**-x-**

Ruka opened her eyes, and smiled. For the first time this week, she had woken earlier than Kain.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him asleep. They had often slept in the same bed as children — she, him, and Hanabusa, at the end long days of study and play, on the massive canopy beds in the guest houses of the Aidou estate. But she split from the boys in early adolescence, when her interests began leaning in a different direction, and she started becoming a girl instead of just a child. In lieu of pseudo science in expansive gardens and hide and seek in swerving halls, she began spending her time with daughters of other big-name houses, with Rima Touya and Kanae Kotonami and Setsuna Ichihara. And while Hanabusa was fond of dropping in, escorting her to parties and flirting with her friends, she saw her older cousin more rarely. Aidou was socially ubiquitous, and flitted, perpetually accessible, near her immediate person, but Kain had a tendency to appear only when he was needed and vanish when he was not. For several years, Ruka saw Kain exclusively at social gatherings. The Academy had brought the three of them back together, but she hadn't seen him in a state of such innocent vulnerability for decades. Pushing herself up, Ruka propped her head on one elbow, the sheets tucked tightly around her chest, and watched.

Kain's face had a calmness in sleep that it lacked in consciousness. His brow, which always seemed furrowed in some sort of concern, was smooth above his closed eyelids. His hair and eyebrows, which she thought was basely red, held glinting strands of gold. His face commanded a sculptural stillness, like a carved Adonis, his breath barely lifting his chest. The sheet sat around his waist, revealing a well-toned abdomen and muscled arms; his skin was a few shades bronzer than she'd thought, and darker than her own. Ruka held her breath. She'd never looked at him before. She'd never thought to.

A lock of her hair had fallen onto his cheek; she reached automatically to brush it away, two fingers dancing feather-light over his sharp cheekbones. Kain didn't stir. Ruka leaned forward, hand still outstretched, and traced his features, the tips of her fingers barely grazing his skin. She followed the aristocratic bridge of his nose to the tip, and down to the curve of his lip, to the pointed chin and the strong, angular jawline. She kept a hair's breadth between his skin and hers. She didn't want to wake him. Her hand moved up to skim the soft, rust-red hair lining his forehead, her body swinging ever so slightly closer —Kain shifted in sleep. Ruka recoiled immediately. The slight movement had sent a wave of his scent over her, like a wall crumbling down. Her chest immediately seized.

_What am I doing?!_

Pushing herself away from him, she slammed a hand over her nose and mouth, the painful dryness of thirst scratching at her throat and tongue as her incisors began to descend. Ruka didn't wait another second. She leapt out of the bed, barging through the bedroom door, into the kitchen, almost crashing into the counter as she slammed one palm down on the half-empty tablet bottle sitting on top. Her hands grappled with the lid — prying it open seemed to require much more effort than it did the day before — she scrambled for a glass, for water. Turning the container upside-down over the small mug she located, she didn't bother to wait for the tablets to dissolve before swallowing the entire concoction. Ruka could feel her fully extended fangs clinking against the lip of the mug as she emptied it. Not good. Not good.

Throwing the mug carelessly into the sink, Ruka dove for the pantry. She knew there must be more — there. Ruka sank her hand into the box of tablets and pulled one out, falling to the ground with her back against the kitchen cabinets. For the first time since she started on the awful blood substitute, Ruka ripped open a container of blood tablets and emptied the dry pills into her hand, unhesitatingly swallowing them whole. She didn't need the dilution. She'd never known bloodlust like this. She clutched her throat and chest with her hands and she crushed the tablets between her teeth, waiting for the red to rescind from the edges of her vision, struggling for breath.

It was more than fifteen minutes before her racing pulse began slowing to a manageable tempo. Ruka closed her eyes, chest still heaving, and licked her lips, dropping the back of her head against the wooden cabinet behind her. The empty container rolled out of her hand, across the floor. With more than a little difficulty, she pushed herself up, balancing herself with one hand on the kitchen counter. Ruka shook her head and swallowed thickly, raising her other hand to massage her throbbing temple. The smell of Kain's blood was still thick in the air, and she still felt abominably dizzy, but that could be more easily dealt with, now that she was not within immediate range of the source. Reaching for the cupboard, she pulled out a large, tall glass, and filled it from the tap. There was filtered water in the fridge, but her legs were still shaking. Ruka inched sideways to the pantry, its door ajar, and again took a container of tablets from the large crate. It took six four-tablet doses to return her to a point where she didn't feel as if she would faint if she should attempt to walk.

She was still in her thin nightgown, leaning against the kitchen counter, a mess of spilled pills and empty bottles littered around her feet. Before Kain woke, she was going to have clean up. And she was going to have to go change. Wincing at the thought of returning to a room imbued with the scent of fresh, running blood, Ruka picked up her fourth tablet pack of the day, a half-empty sixth glass of tablet mixture, and walked resolutely into the living room.

There were shadows behind the lace curtains, outside on the terrace. Momentarily curious, Ruka set her glass down on the coffee table, stepped up to the window, and pulled back the curtains.

And screamed.

**-x-**

Kain stirred, throwing an arm over his eyes. With a deep, slow inhale, he shifted and pushed himself up to a sitting pushing, rubbing one eye with the heel of his right hand. Blinked, to adjust his eyes to the dark.

Ruka, again, was gone — but her side of the bed still held the barest bit of warmth, and her scent lingered in the air. Unlike the previous day, the sheets and comforter had been thrown aside. And on the far side of the room — the stimulus that must've woken him — the doors had been thrown open, and now sat awkwardly half-open in the doorway. He could feel Ruka's presence, and not too far away; she was in the kitchen, leaning against the counter. She seemed mildly panicked, but safe —

Kain stiffened.

He rubbed one eye with the heel of his hand and blinked. No, it was still there. There was a slightly distorted picture in his head — an open doorway, marble counters, and a distinctively female figure, with long wavy hair, standing in the middle of the room, somewhere beyond his natural sight. He could _see_ Ruka in his mind's eye, an unclear image, as if the entire scene was molded from water, but he knew it was her. And he knew where she was. It was more than mere instinct; it was like a second field of vision, layered over his own, and he could feel a palpable tension in the air, conveying feelings and demeanors he could read. He knew where she was, he knew what mood she was in. He could feel the pattern of her breathing.

He could _track _her. He could _hunt _her.

Brow now deeply furrowed, Kain slid out of bed, one hand still pressed to his temple, and pulled a pair of jeans over his legs with the other hand. Bending over, he reached for the lid of his suitcase.

And froze.

His eyes darted immediately to the door of the bedroom, almost invisible in the darkness. Something was near the room that _definitely_ should not be there. It wasn't just Ruka now — he could see, with his new sense, three other bodies within range of the room. Without another thought, the redhead straightened and leapt over the bed, towards the exit. Ruka's figure shifted towards the kitchen door; a small movement, a scraping sound, and moonlight spewed across the living room carpet. A split second before he reached the door, without warning, a piercing scream.

Kain swore as he barreled through the doorway, tearing the wooden doors from their hinges, all but skidding to a stop on the living room floor. He paused to wince at the sight, before crouching down next to the girl on the floor. Broken glass lay beside her, with the remnants of what looked like a tablet concoction pooling on the carpet, slowly soaking into the fabric. Without another thought, he turned her away from the window, and pulled her face into his chest. Ruka didn't put up any resistance; she immediately reached up fastened her arms iron-tight around his shoulders, burying her face deep into the crook of his neck. Kain glanced up and grimaced again. Leaning back, he adjusted to a sitting position on the ground and pulled Ruka into his lap, putting an instinctive protective arm around Ruka. Eyes still fixed firmly on the window, he stretched his free arm backwards to grab the intercom on the coffee table. Flicking it open with his index finger, he punched the keypad with his thumb.

It was Shiki, not Rima, who picked up, sporting a skewed silver headset, extremely tousled auburn hair, and red rings around his eyes. Kain considered pointing out the absurdity of Shiki's appearance, but decided to prioritize.

"Shiki," he said as calmly as he could, "If you have a minute, we have a problem."

"I know," said the very bedraggled-looking Shiki. "We're working on it."

Kain fixed his eyes back on the window, where five ravenous E-class vampires clawed at the glass, running their nails and teeth and tongues eagerly over the impenetrable surface, pupils wildly dilated, fangs drawn in vicious, hungry snarls. Shiki shouted their room number over his shoulder, propped his chin in one palm, and sighed.

"Control teams one, four and five are already working on it, as well as the guard detail outside. The Chairman didn't expect them to find us so quickly."

"When did they get here?"

"The first ones arrived at two in the afternoon. We've been getting calls from the other suites since before the sun went down."

"Who saw them first?"

"Kanae; she hasn't been sleeping days," Shiki replied, sounding painfully harried, tapping furiously at a keyboard. "They went for Ichijou next. I'm glad it was them, they were really calm about it. Then we started getting the hysterical calls. What's wrong with Ruka?"

"She saw them first."

"Ah."

"Let me see," Rima suddenly appeared in the screen, nudging Shiki to one side. "Shiki's woven the curtains into the wall, I can't see anything."

"Don't show her, Kain, I'm tired."

Kain set the com on the carpet and flipped it towards the window with his free hand.

"Oh, disgusting," said Rima with morbid curiosity.

"Thanks a lot," sighed Shiki.

It was a gruesome sight. There were now about eight of them — devolved lower-class vampires, eyes red with bloodlust, faces stretched into horrible grimaces, lips curled into snarls, hair flying wild in matted clumps and ridges that looked like they had been torn at. Jagged, elongated claws and fangs scratched relentlessly at the impenetrable window of the suite, attempting to break in and access the purer blood inside. When two of them seemed to give up trying to get at the nobles and paired off on the balcony, Kain decided it was high time to draw the curtains. He picked up the intercom and nudged the girl curled up into his still bare chest.

"Ruka," he murmured into her ear, not caring that Shiki and Rima were now gazing at them in interest, "I have to close the curtains."

"Okay," came her muffled reply.

"I'm going to need you to get up."

Ruka shifted onto her knees, back decisively turned to the window, and clamped her hands firmly over her eyes, nose and mouth. Kain pushed himself up with an arm, marched calmly towards the melee on the balcony, snapped the curtains shut, and spun back towards his suitemate.

"Hey, Kain," came Shiki's voice from the ground, "They're swarming you guys. We're sending people up, but they'll be a few minutes."

"Okay," said the redhead. A dozen vampires clawing at the window frames screeched as they were incinerated.

"Thanks," Shiki looked relieved.

"Did you see any of the C-classes, by any chance?"

"No, just the Es," Kain told Rima, "Maybe some Ds."

"Most of our people are trying to remove them from the roof. That's our first priority. They're peeling through the tile to get to the ventilation shafts. " Shiki explained. "I'm going to check on Kanae and Takuma, they've been hounded the longest. We'll call back in a bit. Got to go."

"Put a shirt on," Rima suggested.

The intercom blanked. Kain slid the silver disc over onto the coffee table and glanced back at Ruka. She looked pale and shaken, but overall unharmed.

"Ruka?"

She didn't respond. Not even so much as twitch. He frowned.

"Ruka."

Still nothing. Perturbed, Kain moved forward and crouched down in front of the brunette.

She had fallen backwards to a sitting position on the carpet, her legs bent at the knees and splayed across the floor. Her arms were shaking so lightly it was barely noticeable, but her neck was stiff, both hands clamped tightly over her nose and mouth, eyes squeezed shut. At the sudden feel of his hand on her shoulder, Ruka's eyes snapped open. Kain stopped.

Her irises were a deep, blood red.

He looked at the wine glass on the floor, and the full container of blood tablets lying near her knees. He remembered the vice grip she had on him, her nose buried in the junction of his neck and shoulder. It wasn't difficult to draw a conclusion about the girl frozen on the ground.

"You need blood," he informed her matter-of-factly.

Ruka shook her head firmly, hands still fixed in a vacuum grip over her face.

Kain leaned forward, proffering his jugular. Ruka immediately tried to move away, but her legs were paralyzed — a telling symptom of extreme bloodlust.

"I don't need — " Ruka began, but stopped. The second her mouth opened, her throat had exploded with pain. Pale hands began to grasp at her neck; she hacked, the deep inhales causing further duress to her unquenched system. Tears began to rise as her lungs protested the deficiency of air. Ruka doubled over. One hand involuntarily stretched forward, landing firmly on his knee. She shook her head again, with great difficulty.

"You're being absurd," he told her.

She glared up at him through watery eyes, fingers splayed over her throat, chest heaving.

"You can't stand up," he observed. One leg shifted slightly as she tried to prove him otherwise, but Kain knew better. At this degree of hunger, the muscles of her extremities cease to respond, the blood in her own system directed instead to the vitals, and to the mouth. Which, apparently, could still move.

"I can't," she gritted through firmly clenched teeth, her upper body convulsing with the effort. Kain resisted the urge to shake her.

"I don't see how you intend to make it through the rest of the week starving and immobile," he said with great practicality. "Come on, Ruka. It's painful to look at you."

The redhead shifted forward on his knees, placed his wrist where he guessed her mouth to be, and calmly slit it with a fingernail. Blood began bubbling out in a tempting fountain, dripping down the sides of his arm in rivulets. At this final stimulus, Ruka's restraint failed her. Before Kain could perceive the movement, Ruka had driven her incisors into his skin.

He could see the stiff muscles in her neck relax as his blood flowed down her throat. As the bleeding began to slow, clotting imminent, Ruka retracted her fangs and began to suck at the wound. The golden-haired girl closed her eyes, one hand holding up his forearm, the other now clenched, bracing against his knee. Kain took deep breaths, listening to the rhythm of his own heartbeat. Trying to ignore the sensation of Ruka's warm tongue lapping at his skin.

She had taken almost half a liter now. He was starting to feel dizzy —

Without warning Kain fell backwards, landing against the arm of the couch. Ruka started immediately, pulling her fangs from his skin.

"Akatsuki?"

"It's fine," Kain dismissed her concerned tone, retracting his arm and raising it to his mouth. He pressed his wrist against his lips and ran his tongue slowly along the cut and the puncture marks, drawing back as the flesh, vessels and skin fused back together. Ruka looked thoroughly embarrassed.

"You should've told me to stop," she said demurely, raising a hand instinctively to her lips.

"I'm fine," Kain replied, offering her a reassuring smile. "It wasn't that much. What happened?"

"What happened," Ruka sighed, gazing remorsefully at the broken glass on the carpet. "I don't know. I can smell your blood."

"It'll take a while to diffuse."

"No, I don't mean right now," she amended, rubbing the corner of her mouth carelessly. "When I woke up yesterday morning, I could smell your blood. It was strong enough that I could find you. Today it's worse."

"Yesterday?" Kain frowned, wiping at the dried blood on his skin. "I didn't cut myself yesterday."

"No," Ruka said slowly, "I could smell it through your skin. I can still smell it."

Kain's frown deepened. "Did you tell Shiki and Rima?"

"I mentioned it to Rima last night." Ruka pushed herself to her knees, holding a hand to her throbbing temple. "I don't know, Akatsuki. I've never been that hungry before."

"It might be a female hormone trigger," Kain ran a thumb over the tender, pink skin of his recently opened forearm. "I knew there would be some. Mating season has its side effects."

Ruka paused, and looked at him pointedly.

"You can't smell anything?"

"No," he took a deep breath, and pushed himself up to his feet. "Just mine."

He started towards the bedroom door. Ruka frowned.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to put a shirt on," Kain replied over his shoulder. "Or would you rather I not?"

Ruka flushed a deep red and scowled at him. Kain grinned.

"Don't hesitate to ask if it happens again. I don't mind."

"Akatsuki," Ruka rolled foward on the balls of her feet, sounding highly reproachful, "I'm not going to take advantage of you."

Kain's expression changed immediately.

"Take advantage of _me_?"

His body shifted suddenly, the normally stoic figure quickly becoming languid and catlike. With slow, predatory steps, he stalked away from the door and towards his suitemate, stopping inches away from where she remained kneeling on the carpet. He leaned over her, an almost menacing look on his face; Ruka's breath caught in her throat. She was suddenly very, very aware of the flexed muscles of his still unclothed upper body, and very, _very _aware of how much bigger he was. Ruka leaned back on impulse, away from him — Kain leapt forward with a snarl, dropping down on all fours, easily caging her body with his, his face freezing mere inches from hers, fangs bared. Ruka froze, eyes wide; her body immediately tried to fold on itself in defense, hands instinctively leaping up to cover her neck and shoulders.

At her reaction, Kain melted into a barely restrained grin, his lips shaking with the effort of holding back his laughter. Ruka immediately scowled.

"You've made your point," she snapped. "Get off of me."

Kain chuckled, raising himself to a kneel, both legs still easily pinning Ruka's torso to the ground.

"Hunger makes you vulnerable," he told her steadily. "The last thing I need is for you to be vulnerable. And the last thing you need to worry about is mysafety, Ruka."

He offered her a hand. Ruka took a second to shoot a withering glare at him before shoving him hard in unconcealed distaste.

"You don't need to be crass about it," she seethed, her voice dripping with disdain. Kain, propped against the front of the couch, gave her a very stern look.

"As long as you get the message," he said in an uncompromising tone of voice. "It's Wednesday. In three days, I could kill you."

"You won't."

He smiled. "No, I won't. But I could."

"My," a thoroughly unamused voice interjected, "For two remarkably level-headed people, you're both spending a very questionable amount of time in various states of undress this week, of all weeks."

Ruka's neck snapped to the side. Rima's even stare greeted her from the abandoned intercom on the coffee table, the blonde herself looking less than impressed. Ruka frowned and leaned forward, grabbing the silver disk. Kain stood beside her in little more than jeans; she herself was still clad only in her thin chiffon nightgown. The events of the evening had caused her to forget the reason she'd left the kitchen in the first place.

"As your friendly neighborhood life preserver, it is my duty to remind you that now not the best time for you two to decide to throw modesty to the winds," Rima chimed in again, craning her neck to shoot a meaningful glance at Kain. Kain shrugged, and disappeared into the bedroom door. He resurfaced seconds later with Ruka's light green robe, holding it towards her in a diplomatic manner.

"I'm going to take a shower," he told her. "Put this on, if you're going to sit here and talk to Rima. Or you'll catch a cold."

Eyes steadfastly fixed on the intercom sitting on her lap, Ruka lifted one pale arm and wordlessly snatched the thin gown from Kain's outstretched hand. The redhead raised an eyebrow at her, a slight smile tugging at his lips, before silently vanishing back into the bedroom.

"Rima," Ruka sighed, snapping a drooping spaghetti strap firmly over her shoulder. "How long have you been there?"

"Only a couple of minutes," Rima said dryly. "I think I have the gist of the situation."

"Do you," Ruka scowled, pulling her dressing gown over her shoulders and knotting it firmly in the front.

"He has a point," the blonde noted. "You should be more careful, parading around in your underwear in front of him like that. It's like you're asking him to ravish you."

"Don't be absurd."

"Am I? Or was he just half naked and _pinning you to the floor_?"

Ruka bit her lip, and relented. "It was a little out of character."

"This is _Kain _we're talking about," Rima deadpanned. "What's forward for most people is borderline schizophrenic for him. And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You _bit _him," Rima answered tersely. "You _bit Kain_, Ruka. What are you doing?"

Ruka's lip twisted. "I can keep it under control."

"It didn't sound like it," the blonde countered. "It's only Wednesday, and you've been unable to resist feeding from him. Imagine what you could be like on Saturday."

Ruka opened her mouth to protest, but Rima fixed her with a stern look.

"Kain is nearly a foot taller than you, Ruka. He's probably almost a hundred pounds heavier. He _could _kill you. If it's this bad for _you _now, imagine what it'll be like for him."

Ruka frowned, brow creasing in displeasure. Rima sighed, leaning back in her chair.

"He's just watching out for you, Ruka. And he's right to do it, too. He may have been out of line, but I think you're being a little too naive about this whole situation."

Ruka didn't respond. For a long, pregnant moment, she sat in contemplative silence, cradling the silver intercom in her lap. Then:

"I need to clear my head. This entire room smells like blood."

Rima rolled her eyes again. "There's an Olympic-sized pool in the back hallway," she suggested. "Last door on the left."

Ruka blinked at her.

"...you're kidding."

"There should be suits and bathrobes in the dressing room," Rima added, propping her chin on both hands. "And if I receive any indication that you came prancing back out into the living room in anything less than five yards of fabric, I will be forced to raise the issue with Izayoi-sama."

"Don't you _dare _tell my grandmother," Ruka snapped, eyes wide, raising the disk to eye-level. Rima stuck out her tongue.

"Stop being a tease," the blonde replied tartly.

Ruka scowled, and snapped the disk shut.

**-x-**

She emerged from the back hallway a few hours later, wrapped tightly in a white terrycloth robe, to find Kain sitting on the couch, arms crossed over his (now sweater-covered) chest, brow furrowed in concentration, eyes closed.

Nudging the thick metal door closed with one hand, Ruka marched to the center of the room, stopping directly in front of the redhead. He opened one amber eye and stared at her.

Okay, so not asleep.

"What are you doing?" she asked, a hint of annoyance still lingering in her voice.

"Defensive measures," he replied evenly, as both eyes closed again. "There's a disproportionate number of predators at our window. Because there are two of us in here."

Ruka raised an eyebrow, moved to said window, and drew back one heavy lace curtain. A distorted face immediately snapped at her from the newly uncovered opening, twisted mouth morphing into a pained scream as it was quickly incinerated. Ruka flinched. A simmering ring of fire danced around the windowpanes, licking the wrought-iron bars of the false balcony, keeping many of the attackers at bay; but despite Kain's "defensive measures", she could still see a large number of vampires crouched in a group on the lawn below, bleary red eyes fixed on her — and more arriving by the minute. Ruka leaned forward to get a better look, her nose touching the glass; a pair of males immediately dropped from above, landing on the marbled balcony floor, and managed split second leers before they were engulfed by flame. Ruka recoiled and snapped the curtain shut, turning her back upon the scene. Kain's eyes were open now, and fixed on her.

"Where's control?" she demanded.

As if on cue, the silver disk on the coffee table began beeping madly. Kain leaned forward without hesitation and flicked it open.

"Thought I'd update you," came Shiki's voice immediately. "We were going to send Kazuki Kadoma and Seiya Tsuga up a while ago, but the Es tore through the tile on the south side and got into Komaki's room through the ventilation."

"Is she alright?"

"She killed about sixteen of them before we could slow the rest enough to go in and dispose of the remains."

"So much for the Chairman's pacifism," Ruka said dryly, waving an arm absentmindedly in the direction of the window. Kain gave a grunt of consensus as he increased the range of his fiery defense.

"The Chairman called the Association to come and set up a hunter's barrier," Shiki explained, his fingers flying furiously across his keyboard. "They were supposed to come tomorrow morning, but in light of the circumstances they're rushing Yagari-sensei and some underlings here tonight."

Ruka gave him a look.

"How long will that take?"

"A few more hours," Shiki guessed as he adjusted his headset. "After they get here, they have to figure out to how to alter the sutras for the barrier so it doesn't poison us all."

Ruka made a slightly disgusted sound as she moved to sit down on the couch beside Kain. He shifted slightly to accommodate her, before directing his attention back to the screen.

"You look tired," the redhead observed of the younger vampire. Shiki shrugged.

"So do you," he replied. "Do you still have your side of the building covered? We can't take our people off the roof yet."

Kain frowned, raising a hand to rub his stiff neck. "I have this room and the next covered, and a couple of the rooms above us. Tetsuya Tennoji called earlier to say he could take care of the three within his range downstairs."

"Good," Shiki frowned. "That's one side I don't have to worry about."

"Is anyone else active?"

"...Yes," Shiki's lip twisted in apprehension. "With varying results."

The click of a door quickly opened and closed sounded from Shiki' side, as Rima smoothly entered the room and the conversation.

"It's not going too swimmingly," came her voice from somewhere to the left. "Tennoji had to stop or he'd flood us, so the east wing of the first floor is susceptible now. Kain, before you adjust your range, I'm going to tell you very frankly that if you drop your flame any lower, you're going to start a forest fire."

"Fantastic," said Kain.

"Anyone else?" Ruka asked. Shiki massaged his temples slowly.

"Souma was burying them," he offered.

"Souma was told to stop, too," said a clearly agitated Rima. "It's so impractical. If he opens another chasm in the ground, the entire foundation of this building is going to collapse."

"Splendid," Shiki deadpanned. "Well, we still have Aidou on the offense, but he's freezing so many Es that the glacier surrounding his suite is a virtual stepladder for the ones clawing their way up to the roof. Almost everyone else is either defensive or short-range, and Komaki and Kanae and Ichijou are exhausted. And we can't have you all draining yourselves defending this building."

"So what do we do?"

"We hope you guys can hold them off long enough for us to fix the roof," Shiki shrugged, his eyes fixed on a screen to his left. "Right now the four controllers from the other floors are rebuilding the damaged area, and most of the security regiment is busy defending them. When they're done it'll free up at least six people for your side of the building."

The silver disk in Kain's hand promptly interrupted Shiki by resuming its usual routine of beeping madly. When Kain did little other than stare at it blankly, Shiki reached forward and tapped three keys on his control monitor. The screen split, harkening the appearance of a very anxious-looking Chairman Kurosu, adjusting his glasses and peering at Kain.

"Good evening," the Chairman sounded exhausted. "I'm sure you've all been made aware of the situation at hand. I apologize. I didn't expect them to get here so soon, and I certainly didn't expect this many of them. We don't have enough people to cover the building."

"We've noticed," Kain said dryly.

"Well, despite these setbacks, I thought of something," the Chairman continued, pointedly ignoring Kain's remark. "If could lend a hand, Ruka-chan, you have a defensive craft, don't you?"

"Illusion," Ruka clarified.

"That's what I thought," the Chairman nodded. "Could you camouflage the property for a couple of hours, perhaps make it look like it's not here? It could reduce the Ds and Es honing in on us and give us enough time to get rid of the ones we have."

"She can't do that," Rima replied immediately, popping her head into their field of vision on the other side of the screen. The Chairman looked surprised.

"Why not?"

"Ruka needs to have contact with her medium in order to manipulate it," Kain said flatly from the side. "Since we're sealed off from the environment outside, she can't change it."

"I'm honored that you believed otherwise, Chairman," Ruka replied gracefully, "My craft is more than useless. You'll have to carry on peeling them from the walls."

"Hooray," said Shiki.

"Ah," the Chairman deflated noticeably. "Well, no matter. The Hunters from the Association should be arriving any minute now...I should be focusing my energy on recasting these sutras. If you could hold them off just a little bit longer."

Kurosu offered a cheerful wave, and vanished. Shiki began muttering into the microphone attached to his headpiece, tapping impatiently at his keyboard. Behind him, Rima rushed about, manning two other intercom screens as she began steadily calling out a short list of names. Shiki swore under his breath as he scribbled them down.

"I'll be right back," the auburn-haired boy told Kain quickly. "We're getting casualties."

Ruka stared at the screen impassively as Shiki vanished.

"Well, I feel redundant," she said wryly.

"Don't," Kain replied; then, emphatically, "Your craft is not worthless."

"Ah," Ruka lifted one hand in front of her eyes and stared at it critically. "Yes, the present situation highlights my efficacy _so_ well."

"You have the power to change perception," Kain said, fixing her with a stern look. "That is a very dangerous ability. I thought your brother Azuma had this conversation with you."

"Azuma manipulates a physical environment," Ruka replied, her voice dropping to an uncharacteristic low murmur. "It's very different from what I do — or rather, don't do. I project a second layer to reality. That's all I can do. I project lies," she paused, "And here you are, gallantly shooting fireballs at demons."

"Yours is a defensive craft," Kain replied carefully. "Elementals work differently."

"Defensive?" Ruka frowned, eyes fixed on the hands clasped over her knees. " I can't even protect myself. I can hardly think to protect anyone else."

"Does it matter?" he shrugged. "Your ability to defend yourself is irrelevant. No one's going to hurt you, not while I'm around."

A sharp tap sounded at the window. Kain raised an eyebrow and pushed off from the couch, pulling the curtain aside. On the other side of the glass were two young vampires — a black-haired girl with a large, disheveled topknot, a boy with thick, curling chestnut hair — dressed in matching black latex bodysuits, backs turned to the window of the suite. The girl held a sword crackling with electricity; she glanced quickly over her shoulder, nodded at Kain, and leapt off the balcony, into the fray. The boy turned and offered a bright grin, giving the older vampire a thumbs up before waving at him to shut the curtain. Kain inclined his head and gave the brunet a two-finger salute before complying.

"I guess they fixed the roof," he said cautiously, turning towards his suitemate.

Ruka shrugged.

"I'm going to get changed," she said, rising from the couch, her voice regaining its normal, flippant lilt. Without another word, Ruka turned and disappeared through the bedroom door.

** -x- **

Kain ran a hand through his tousled hair and sighed. This...this he hadn't expected. The sudden tremor in her voice, the unconscious aversion of her eyes, the white clenched knuckles whenever she spoke to him, slowly confessing fears and faults — even Ruka Soen comes with baggage. Per se, an inferiority complex from hell.

He frowned deeply, lips twisting in his contemplation. For all her haughtiness, for her pretense at self-assuredness and her mask of apathy and poise, Ruka was not impervious to doubt. Her very words were weighed down with a stifling helplessness, like a trapped animal, slowly domesticated, carefully taught the futility of flight — she was imbued with a delicate vulnerability; her thoughts dwelled on her powerlessness, unable to move escape her self-made cage as she clung to the familiarity of stagnation. She didn't need to say it out loud for Kain to understand that she had given up on herself a long time ago.

He wondered how often she talked to others about her fears, or if to anyone at all. He wondered if anyone would have ever found out, if she hadn't told him.

A loud _thud_ and a _crack _caught his attention. Kain shifted again towards the window, pushing the curtain off from the glass with one hand.

The chestnut-haired boy was slumped against the corner of the balcony, struggling to get back on his feet, his body bracing against the glass as he threw an arm over the wrought iron rail. The black-haired girl lay in his arms, unconscious, a massive gash cut across her chest, down through her abdomen. The boy had one injured arm hooked around her, blood dripping down his forehead from an indeterminable head wound, more seeping from the cut on his arm —

And a crack in the glass, not half an inch from where that arm was propped against the window.

Kain raised a hand to reform his defenses, but the boy had caught the motion from the corner of his eye. Whipping around, he shook his head furiously, gesticulating wildly between the girl in his arms and the field below, mouth moving with words Kain couldn't hear. Suddenly, another _snap, _and the boy was thrown against the glass. Kain flinched back. Two pairs of arms appeared at the far end of the balcony, clawing their way up the bars — the boy turned with great effort, his chestnut hair matted with blood, his back pressed against the glass as he faced the encroaching figures.

Another web-like crack in the class.

The intercom on the coffee table began chirping madly. Kain wasted no time in reaching it.

"Kain," Rima's worried face dominated the screen. "Kain, don't attack — we have people on the first floor, and they won't be able to get away. They got Seiya badly — Kazuki is injured — Kain, listen to me, _one of them has a hunter's gun._"

Kain froze. Slowly, as if time had frozen, he pivoted towards the balcony.

There, standing before the struggling Kazuki, were two D-class vampires, leering through the window. One reached down to grab the arm of the unconscious Seiya. The brunet bracing against the window raised a hand in defense —

The second D lowered the ornate gun searing its hand and shot him. Kazuki crumpled. Then, without hesitation, it raised the gun at the window and fired.

The bullet burnt its way rapidly through the glass, as if it were paper. Kain collapsed onto the carpet to the sound of Rima's frantic screams, teeth gritting against the sensation of a million needles piercing the pain center of his brain. The hunter's bullet had imbedded itself into his stomach, burning through the skin and muscles of his abdomen — but that wasn't the main problem now.

Between the two cracks inflicted before, and the hole in the window, the glass was splintering. Three more shots, and the whole pane would give.

He couldn't let them in here.

Ruka was still in the room.

Trying to ignore the red dripping onto the carpet, poison burning through organs and churning blackening blood, Kain leaned forward shot a wave of fire at the dozen E-classes climbing over the balcony rail. The two Ds ducked around the attack, leaping off the balcony —

Kain cursed, a wave of pain washing over him as the poison from the hunter's bullet entered his stomach proper. The black-haired girl was still unconscious, slowly bleeding out from the open wounds in her torso; the chestnut-haired boy lay broken and immobile against the bloodstained glass, his body covering hers, head lolled to the side at a dangerous angle. The scent radiating from their wounds was attracting more vampires to their broken window than anyone else's. And the glass was still fracturing.

Suddenly, his worst nightmare.

In his blurry second vision, the figure of a girl left a bed and moved towards the exit of a large room. The sound of a door being pushed open. The light hitch of breath. He looked up to see Ruka framed in the bedroom doorway, her long honey-colored hair cascading down her back, a light blue dress fluttering around her delicate figure — both hands covering her mouth, amber eyes wide with shock.

"Akatsuki?"

_Shit_.

He wasn't the only one who watched her enter. The D with the gun was back, perched daintily next to the bodies against the glass, his face stretched into a horrific grin, his weapon burning steadily at his flesh as he pointed it —

Kain lunged forward as the trigger coiled, folding his body like a shield around the shocked girl, throwing them both to the floor —

He couldn't suppress a yell of pain as the second bullet dug through his back. Ruka screamed as the body crouched over her suddenly crumpled.

"_Akatsuki!_"

Kain snarled and fell to the ground, slumped against the doorframe, his face devoid of all color, molars grinding together so hard it was difficult to believe they wouldn't shatter. Ruka could barely react. He raised his neck to look past her, back to the window; clutching his bloody torso, he propped himself up with great difficulty and grit his teeth. The ball of flame he sent at the coming wave of vampires was out of control — a massive sphere of fire, swerving uncontrollably as it barreled through its targets — he couldn't stop it from hitting the grass. The strain of the attack threw Kain; he collapsed onto the floor beside Ruka, doubled over in pain. The blood was soaking through the blue lawn of her dress.

"Oh my God," Ruka hung over him, eyes running almost uncomprehendingly over his crumpled frame. "Akatsuki —"

"Get back inside," he snapped. "Lock the door. Now."

Taking two long, shaking breaths, Kain pushed himself up on his knees, teeth gritted — then, suddenly, from under his arm, he could see, again, the drooping barrel of an ornate gun —

Without hesitation he pulled Ruka into his chest, rolling over onto the carpet. The third bullet grazed his bicep, eliciting a pained hiss before it slammed into a leg of the coffee table. The sound of the window shattering drowned out Ruka's voice — she was pressing her fingers desperately against the newly opened skin, putting pressure on the wound —

"_Akatsuki_, _stop it_!"

He pushed her aside, ducking towards the window — the flame he raised barely flickered, wasn't even close to his target — his vision was beginning to blur, and Ruka's voice was too close behind him for any kind of comfort —

The hunter's gun clattered to the floor of the balcony as it finally burned through the wielder's hand. The D bent to retrieve it — and let out a horrific howl. A black whip wrapped around his throat — Shiki landed on the marble a split second later, twisting his arm and throwing the creature down into the flames below. Rima was at the window, pulling the unconscious black-haired girl's arm over her shoulders. Another black-clad vampire landed next to her, long white hair billowing in the wind as Shiki retracted his blood whip. Slicing open his other palm with his teeth, the dark-haired boy molded a bloody scythe in his hand as Rima leapt for the roof. The second D had returned, and the white-haired male made quick work of it; Shiki turned to the broken pane of glass, shooting anxious looks at the two crouched inside.

"How many shots did he take?"

"Three," Ruka yelled, her eyes burning. Shiki's expression darkened.

"Get him elevated," he ordered, "He's going to bleed out."

Ruka nodded and pulled Kain's arm over her shoulder. He was heavy — Ruka grit her teeth and lifted his torso off the carpet entirely, trying to pull him as gently as possible to the couch. Shiki turned back to the fray. The Es and Ds that had been otherwise occupied now leapt fearlessly for the broken window, drawn by the scent of three nobles' nearly undiluted blood. Rima was back, collecting the chestnut-haired Kazuki, pulling him to safety. There was a thick puddle of red liquid on the balcony floor, and smeared against the window; Ruka clamped a hand over her nose as she lifted Kain onto the cushions.

Shiki turned to glance back at her. "Ruka —"

"I can handle it," she snapped, fear dawning on her face. "_Do your job_."

Shiki gave her a succinct nod and turned to the white-haired male.

"Kisaragi, the window."

The white-haired male nodded, folding his hands over the frame. A ripple-like distortion appeared in the space where the glass used to be. Amorphous liquid began forming at the edges, pooling in the middle; the window pane was reforming, as if time was turning backwards, pieces appearing where they had fallen. But Ruka wasn't watching.

_RIIIIIPP._

Propping Kain up against the far arm of the couch, Ruka reached down and tore the thick, blood-stiffened fabric from Kain's torso. His body coiled instinctively; a cry of pain escaped his clenched teeth. Ruka swallowed with difficulty as she ran her eyes over his body. She didn't know where to start. The open wound in his stomach was still weeping blood, red and mottled, the heavy purple bruising of hunter's poison covering the expanse of his lower torso. The second bullet had torn through his back; the blood had been partially staunched by the thick material of the sweater, but the fabric was fusing to his skin. Bruising indicated nothing short of two broken ribs. The arm wound was the least heinous, but the bullet had ripped flesh along with skin, and the wound was deep. And he was still, still bleeding.

Ruka grabbed hold of the skirt of her blue dress and tore a wide strip from the hem. It wrapped around his stomach, and she tied it as tightly as possible, pushing down on the wound in an attempt to slow the bleeding. He let out another gut-wrenching roar. Ruka could feel the tears rolling from her eyes now, burning hot tracks down her cheeks as they wet the makeshift bandage beneath her; shaking her head, she wiped the saline from her lashes and refocused her attention. Snatching the frayed hem of her dress, she tore another length and pressed it to his back; a third wound around his arm. She brushed away the hair in her eyes, leaving bloody streaks on her skin, and reached down to feel his forehead.

He was burning; his temperature normally ran high, but this was well past feverish. Not, not good. His body was too torn to repair itself, and with the hunter's poison slowly eating at him, he wasn't going to have the opportunity to heal. Leaping to her feet, Ruka looked helplessly around the room. She needed a knife, a flame, bandages and towels and _where was she going to find a tweezer_ —

A sharp rap on the window. Ruka looked up. Rima had returned, and was pointing to the bathroom door as the white-haired male fused together cracks in the panes. The blonde made a pulling motion with her arm, then raised three fingers. Ruka nodded and ran.

She grabbed the scented candle on the bathroom counter and a stack of towels arranged neatly on the rim of the tub, and turned to the shelves lining the far wall. Sure enough, in the third drawer — a well-equipped first-aid package, and a manicure kit. She wasted no time in procuring a steak knife from the kitchen, and a box of matches, and darted back towards the large body sprawled on the couch. His brow was deeply furrowed, his breath ragged, sweat rolling down his neck, teeth still clenched in pain — Ruka cut open the makeshift blue lawn bandage on his abdomen, lit the candle, and ran the knife quickly over the flame. Without another second's pause, she drove the blade into the wound.

Kain screamed, his body instinctively trying to fold around itself in defense. Ruka wasn't having any of it. She threw her weight behind her other shoulder and slammed it firmly down on his chest, pinning the redhead to the couch. Fervently trying to disregard his cries of pain, she dug — and five inches in, the definitive sensation of metal against metal. The tweezers were flat, not needle-nosed — whispering an apology beneath her breath, she plunged it into his bruised and mottled flesh along the blade of the knife. Kain's teeth ground furiously as he tensed, but she had caught it. Her lips set in a tight line, Ruka began to pull.

"Just a little bit more," she told the barely-conscious Kain, "Hang on —"

One last sharp tug, and she removed the bullet.

It was a tiny silver ball, barely the size of her pinky nail, but it had been good at its job. If she thought he had been bleeding before — the second the metal ball left his skin, blood began bubbling to the surface. A fevered groan escaped Kain's lips as he slumped back against the couch.

"No," Ruka clenched her teeth, clamping a hand immediately over the injury. "No, no, no, no, no, Akatsuki, _hang on._"

Ignoring the sudden dryness of her throat, Ruka pulled a roll of thick, sturdy medical bandage from the metal case of the first-aid kit, folding the previously discarded blue lawn and pushing it down over the gaping wound before she wrapped the bandage firmly around his stomach. Then, with equal efficiency, she dressed the deep cut on his arm. Ruka wiped her forehead again, sweat matting her honey-gold hair to her neck and forehead. With one quick, jagged motion, she flipped him on his side.

The cushion below him was saturated with red. She was right. The wool of his sweater had done its part in staunching the bleeding, but in the process it had glued itself to his skin. Biting her lip, Ruka picked up the knife again. She was going to have to cut it off — and whatever it clung to, with it.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, steeling herself. Bracing one hand on Kain's side, Ruka wedged the edge of the knife between the fringe of the fabric and Kain's fevered skin — and pulled.

She was working on pure adrenaline now, her mind barely given time to process her actions as she ran shaking fingers over the raw, red flesh she had opened. She pushed the tip of the knife down into the wound — Kain's breathing hitched noticeably, his torso seizing — no good. It was too deep to retrieve from the back, too close to his heart to dig out from the front. This one, he would have to battle on his own.

Ruka pushed two towels down onto the couch cushion, and flipped Kain back over. Grabbing a third, she marched to the kitchen, and ran the towel quickly under a faucet. She drew the curtain firmly on her way back — Shiki, Rima and Kisaragi were still outside, but appeared to be holding their own much better than the previous pair. Kneeling back beside Kain, Ruka's throat tightened. Ran shaking fingers over his torso. There was more bandage than skin, and his breathing was still irregular, forehead still beaded with sweat. Ruka ran the cool towel over his temples, and wiped the blood off of his neck, his abdomen, off his chest and arms. She could see fresh tears dripping onto his skin, feel them rolling off her cheeks. She couldn't muster the energy to wipe them away.

Ruka was exhausted — dropping the rust-red towel, she fell against the couch, all the urgency evaporating from her body.

Her face was buried in an arm slung over his hips, the other hanging as her hand found his. Her flingers ran over his clenched fist, gently prying it open, sliding into his grip. Ruka turned to look at him. His neck and torso were still tense; his body working furiously to fight off the poisons, to set bones and mend skin and stitch itself back together with what little energy he had. His hair was stuck to his temples, his brow furrowed — Ruka raised her hand to brush the pieces away. She imagined she looked somewhat like a wreck.

Pulling her wrist to her lips, she bit down, and watched the blood pool on her white skin. Ruka pushed her hand up to Kain, settling her wrist down over his mouth. His chapped lips twitched slightly as her blood flowed over his tongue, his breathing slowing and evening out almost immediately. Ruka waited until the wound she opened began to clot before pulling away. She was beginning to feel light-headed.

"Don't die on me," she murmured, squeezing his hand. "Don't you dare, Akatsuki Kain."

**-x-**

Ruka stirred to the feeling of someone stroking her hair. Blinking herself awake, she tilted her head to see Kain's soft amber eyes gazing down at her. Her mind scrambled to register the stimulus — he was awake. He was _alive. _

And she had fallen asleep on him...figures.

Checking herself immediately from her sprawl across his chest, Ruka pulled herself up and lunged at him.

"You _idiot_! What were you thinking?"

She couldn't hide the relief in her voice as she hovered over him in a well-executed pretense of indignation. Kain blinked slowly, tiredly, fingers still tangled in the long tresses draped across his arm.

"I couldn't let them hurt you," he said matter-of-factly, and coughed. His voice was still strained, of course; his body was still healing. Ruka felt her eyes began to sting, again. She pressed the heel of a hand to her cheek quickly, wiping away hot tears as they began spilling from her eyes.

"You're so _stupid_," she murmured through clouded vision, dropping her head. "You're so, so stupid."

Kain's hand moved to cup her cheek. Ruka's breath caught in her throat as he brushed the pad of his thumb over her mottled cheekbone.

"You look like a mess," he told her. Ruka had to resist the urge to laugh. She knew she did — tangled, matted hair, dried blood on her arms and forehead, a dress torn almost to shreds — she was hardly presentable.

"What happened?" Kain asked, brow furrowing. "I can't remember, past the —"

"The D with the hunter's gun," Ruka sniffed, covering his hand with one of her own. "You took three shots, Akatsuki." Her throat tightened as a fresh wave of tears rose to her eyes. Kain raised his eyes to look her over, pausing on the patches of dried blood on her skin.

"Are you injured?"

Ruka shook her head mutely.

"Then it was well worth it," he said with a wan smile.

Ruka broke down, unable to hold back the tears as she fell into his chest. Kain grunted on impact, but buried his nose in her hair, lifting his arms and wrapping them around the shaking girl.

"Hey," he murmured into the crown of her head, "I'm okay, aren't I?"

"You lost so much blood," Ruka wept into his chest, her voice muffled. "I thought you were going to _die_."

"I didn't."

"You could have," Ruka pushed herself up on her elbows, staring straight down at him. "You're so _stupid, _Akatsuki. Promise you won't do it again. Not for me."

Kain looked at her sternly for a moment. Then, without warning, he pushed himself upwards and pressed his lips against hers.

Ruka froze in shock. Kain's lips were dry from blood loss, but they were warm and soft as they covered hers — he moved his hand from her cheek to the back of her head and pulled her down over him, his mouth pushing lightly against her lips. The kiss wasn't forceful, wasn't frantic — Ruka relaxed into his hold, her eyes fluttering shut. Kain opened his mouth lightly, gently plying hers open with his, and brushed his tongue lightly over her bottom lip, instigating further exploration; Ruka complied eagerly, her heart beating uncontrollably against her ribcage as his tongue rolled against hers, his arms tightening around her waist, one large hand supporting her neck as her body slowly melted against his.

Then, just as suddenly as he started, Kain pulled away, pressing one light kiss on the corner of her mouth, gently smoothing her hair with his fingers. Ruka blinked, cheeks flushed, his gaze trapping hers like thick honey. She couldn't move — much less speak. Cautiously, she wet her bottom lip, trying to think of something to say, to defend her response, something to quip —

"Ruka," he whispered as he brushed his lips over the tip of her nose, her chin, her jaw line, "You don't seem to understand, though I keep telling you."

Ruka swallowed thickly. She was still tired — unreasonably tired — his skin was still smoldering from poisoned fever, his eyes drooping languidly as his metabolism tried to keep up. Ruka dropped her head into the crook of his neck. His fingers ran through her tangled tresses, lightly grazing the sensitive skin at the base of her neck, a comforting rumble in his chest as he hummed softly to her, his free arm still slung over her waist, his skin burning...burning.

She closed her eyes.

**-x-**

_Try telling me off, try slamming the door _

_And tell me I'm not worth your time, or the breath I'm breathing._

_Don't throw it away, oh, calico queen, _

_Cause now you're merely a machine,_

_And not a person._

**-x-**

_**Next time...**_

"You'd think you could teach a person to buy herself some self-respect," he snorted.

* * *

**_A/N: _**Sorry for the delay, this chapter was really hard to write. I scrapped the original and started from scratch.

If you're a really detail-oriented reader, you might notice that I've already started building up my cast of supporting OCs. They will be integral in forming the society in which our characters operate in the future. Though most will make multiple appearances, few will make appearances that are significant. Only a handful will be integral to the plot, as far as our characters are concerned. I'm not a big fan of overimportant OCs.

For those who have read this already, the first chapter of _The Withering _will be up within the next two weeks. So you can look forward to that.

The italicized lyrics are from _Vampires in Blue Dresses _by Margot and the Nuclear So and So's.


	5. Thursday

___Disclaimer: _Vampire Knight belongs to Hino Matsuri_._

* * *

_I was the one you always dreamed of, you were the one I tried to draw._

_How dare you say it's nothing to me?_

_You're the only light I ever saw. _

_Can't seem to hold you like I want to, so I can feel you in my arms._

_Nobody's gonna come and save you, we pulled too many false alarms._

**-x-**

**THURSDAY**

**-x-**

_Beep..beep...beep...beep...beep...beep...beep..._

Kain groaned, stirring slowly into consciousness. The beeping, first. Then — he winced, teeth clenched, pressing the heel of one hand to his throbbing forehead. His neck hurt, a dull ache pulsing from its odd angle, propped against the arm of the couch. A muted pain was pounding in his chest — and pressure. Kain tensed, and looked down. A crown of long, wavy, honey-gold hair lay there, barely an inch below his chin, a small white hand curled on his left bicep. His own arms lay around her small waist, holding her to him —

Kain swallowed thickly.

Ruka was asleep. She was asleep _on _him — and the bandages. Kain's brow furrowed. Bandages — and her skin was touching his, the soft fabric of her dress brushing against the exposed skin of his chest, her legs caught between his own, her body nestled into his. The sudden feel of her small hips against him made him shift quickly, still staring, in muted disbelief, at the girl in his arms.

"Shit," he muttered.

And the beeping.

Kain shook his aching head and looked around the room. There were large, rust-red patches on the carpet in front of the French doors, sunlight pouring through the thin lace curtains...he turned towards the sound, trying to find the source. The silver disk was laying on the ground, under the coffee table — slowly, cautiously, he slid his arm down the side of the couch, and picked it up.

A tired moan escaped Ruka's lips at the slight shift of Kain's body. Her body tensed as she roused, shifting to regain her balance on Kain's moving form. Slowly taking in her surroundings, Ruka licked her lips and rubbed her eyes, pushing herself up on two wobbling elbows, blinking around in a daze. His hands immediately darted to her waist, steadying her. Ruka started, and looked down.

"...Akatsuki? Oh," her tone shifted as her mind processed her location, her eyes darting immediately to the bandages on his body. "Grief. Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

Kain stared at her blankly. She was still, for the most part, on top of him; her left leg was pressed against the back of the couch by his own right thigh, the other carefully balancing, partially extended, between his legs, the creamy whiteness of skin all too visible beneath the raggedly short skirt of her torn blue dress. Her hips were still pressed against his torso, his own hands sitting, disproportionately large, on her waist, the softness of her small body pushing down on his, and she didn't seem to notice; her hands were on either side of his neck, honey-colored hair spilling down on his bare chest, brown eyes running over his chest as her soft pink lips twisted in concern, an incredibly short distance away from his own —

"I'm feeling better," Kain replied steadily.

_Beep...beep...beep..._

Both pairs of eyes moved to the silver disk in Kain's hand. He weighed the possible consequences of Rima finding Ruka splayed across him, decided he could probably handle it, and flipped the intercom open.

Aidou's worried expression immediately took a turn for scandalized.

"_What the hell are you doing_?!"

Ruka stared at her cousin's furious expression for a split second before the assumption he drew dawned on her. With as much speed and dignity as she could muster in her rumpled state, Ruka raised herself to a kneel and quickly backed away from Kain; the redhead resisted the urge to roll his eyes and pushed himself up to a recline against the arm of the couch.

"Nothing," he told Aidou with very little conviction.

"Jesus Herbert Christ, Ruka Soen."

"Don't be an _ass_, Hanabusa."

"Nothing is happening," Kain repeated, managing to sound a little more certain.

"We fell asleep," said Ruka, deeply irritated.

"Doing what? Playing doctor?"

"Actually," the brunette scowled. "_Yes._"

She raised a hand pointedly towards Kain's torso, still coated in thick layers of bandage. Aidou paused, his gaze taking the direction of her indication, and seemed to calm a degree at the sight. Kain sighed, feeling significantly more exhausted. Ruka, the picture of indignant fury, stood and glowered at the screen with tangible contempt.

"I'm sure Akatsuki can fill you in," she bit at the blond. "I'm going to take a bath. I'm filthy. Good _evening_."

Ruka marched pointedly across the room —long hair in tangles, dress bloodied and torn — opened the bedroom door, shot Aidou another withering glare, and slammed it behind her.

Both cousins sighed heavily. Two pairs of eyes turned from the immobile door, and back towards each other.

Silence.

"I don't get why she's so angry," Aidou said finally, almost pouting. "It was a valid assumption."

Kain bit back the urge to laugh at the petulant expression on the blond man's face.

"It's Ruka," he said as a way of explanation. "She's like that."

"That woman," said Aidou, "is a hurricane."

"I know," the redhead replied, cracking the joints in his neck.

"Hurricanes are bad, Akatsuki," Aidouventured cautiously.

Kain shrugged. His cousin rolled his eyes with a smile, before he seemed to remember the situation at hand. The blond leaned forward towards the screen, squinting at the bandages. And cursed.

"Jesus, Akatsuki," Aidou frowned. "What the hell happened to you?"

Kain winced as he began to unwind bandages from his torso. "I got shot three times. How was your evening?"

"Ruka?"

"Ruka's fine," the redhead grumbled with a sigh, propping his still aching head in his hands.

"There was blood on her face."

"It's mine."

"Good. Because I can't count on the available appendages of my _body_ the number of people who would be after your neck if they'd touched a hair on her body."

Kain sighed. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to check on you," Aidou replied simply. "About halfway through the evening all the Es and Ds suddenly vanished from my side of the building. Shiki told me they went to yours. Some of them had _hunter's_ _weapons_."

"Did they?" Kain scowled at his cousin, pushing tenderly on the spot over which his flesh was desperately trying to digest a hunter's bullet. "I didn't realize, thanks for the update."

"Three times," Aidou whistled. "You were a bloody mess, weren't you?"

"What happened to the ones that were guarding our room?" Kain demanded, recalling two younger vampires. "Seiya Tsuga and the Kadoma boy. They were in horrible shape."

"Yeah, they got Seiya with a hunter's sabre," the blonde replied. "She's in the first floor control room, they have her hooked up to at least eight bags of blood. Rima pulled the bullet out of Kazuki Kadoma and he's awake now, but he hasn't left Seiya since he could move. Really nice kid, Kazuki. He's beating himself up about it, too. It's really adorable, minus the festering wounds. Really reminds me of you two."

"Ha," replied Kain with a wince.

"You look pretty good," the blond observed. "Did Ruka get the bullets?"

"She got two of them," Kain replied dryly. "I'm working on the third."

"Good luck. You must be exhausted."

"I've been out for a good eight, nine hours."

"Well, the hunters got here a couple hours ago and cleared out the rest of them, and they put up the barrier. They haven't quite figured out how to tweak it, though, so it's going to be a shitty day for us."

Kain winced. "That explains the headache."

"And the bitchiness."

"I think," said Kain, "You struck a nerve."

Aidou rolled his eyes, raising a glass of blood tablet to his lips. "Akatsuki, please. I think I know about _defending Ruka's honor_ as well you do."

"I kissed her last night," said Kain.

Aidou promptly spat the concoction in his mouth all over the intercom.

Kain frowned as his cousin cursed, swiping at the driblets of reddish liquid on the screen with a tissue. Blue eyes stared at him in incredulity.

"You _kissed her?!_ You kissed Ruka?"

"Yes," said Kain.

Aidou exploded.

"You _kissed _Ruka Soen? The girl you're been in love with since fucking infancy? The girl you're _not supposed to be touching_?! _What the actual shit?!_"

"I was shot _three times_," Kain snapped. "Sometimes when you're _bleeding to death _your judgment gets a little hazy."

"God dammit," Aidou fell back in his hair, shaking his head in disbelief. "You moron, what were you thinking?"

Kain sighed. "She was...crying."

His cousin threw his hands in the air in utter exasperation.

"She was _crying_."

Kain shrugged. Aidou sighed.

"You're hopeless."

"No," Kain furrowed his brow, frowning at his cousin. "She was upset. She was mad at me for getting hurt."

Aidou snorted. "That's helpful."

"I think she was mad at herself. Because she couldn't do anything about it."

At this, Aidou's demeaner wilted. He smacked his forehead with his hand and groaned, slumping back in his chair.

"God...not this again."

"What do you mean?"

"She's been acting like this for years," Aidou mumbled through the hand he'd slapped over his face. "What was she saying? That she was useless and you shouldn't have bothered?"

"The gist."

"Ugh. You'd think you could teach a person to buy herself some self-respect."

Kain frowned. "How long has this been going on?"

Aidou opened one blue eye and glared at his cousin. "Since _conception_. Jesus. How do _you_ not know?"

"I don't know," Kain shrugged. Aidou sighed.

"Well, figures. It started after her last brother left the house, which was about the same time your mother sent you to military school in Greece for burning down the Prague estate after they told you you were engaged to my stupid sister."

"I didn't think I missed much," Kain frowned. Aidou snorted.

"Yeah, of course you didn't. You were out of range for six years, and guess who had to chaperone Ruka _the entire time_."

"What happened?"

"Nothing happened," Aidou sighed, slumping ungracefully against his chair. "But I've never agreed with how Aunt and Uncle Soen raised Ruka."

"I don't follow."

"Of course you don't," Aidou rolled his eyes. "You do exactly what they do. I've said this before. The bloody lot of you spoil the living shit out of her. All while she was growing up her parents and her brothers and you, you most of all, treated her like she'd keel over and die if you asked her to do anything on her own. So she never did."

"I think that's an exaggeration."

"Is it?" the blonde said, exasperated. "For a hundred and fifty years Ruka didn't and couldn't do anything for herself. None of you would let her. She was sheltered, like girls are, but they took it to the extreme and raised her to be completely dependent on other people. People like her brothers, and —"

"Like us?" Kain paused, processing his cousin's words.

"Exactly," Aidou sighed. "You see how she is. When she runs into unfamiliar situations, she has no idea how to react. She can't cope with it, because she never really learned how to. When you and her brothers left the country, all of you at the same time, she was in shock. Her entire environment changed. And, since you weren't around, her mother made _me_ watch her."

At this, Aidou gave Kain an extremely pointed glare.

"And I, being not you, stood back and let her do whatever the hell she wanted."

Kain snorted. "And that helped?"

"At the very least she started maturing," the blond snapped. "You know, there are consequences to raising a person to be _that _entitled. But she learned pretty quickly. In fact, I am going to sit right here and take full credit for how she turned out. But I'm not going to pretend I fixed everything. Ruka's Ruka. She hates being wrong, and she hates making mistakes. She had to do a lot of that in those six years. And she hates being insecure, so she compensates by being a giant bitch. Mostly to me."

He sighed.

"I pretend to understand it, but nobody understands how demoralizing weakness feels better than Ruka. She hates it. And she hates herself for being like that. She likes men like Kaname-sama and me because we're _not_ nice to her. Do you get it? She likes men who are mean to her. She doesn't like _herself_. That's her problem. She pretends to be very confident, but she's not, not yet, at least. That why she likes people like you, too. You're infallible. And she's still scared to be alone."

"Well fuck," said Kain.

"I know," the blond shrugged. "Sometimes I'm honestly surprised she wasn't completely twisted by the time I got to her. That she wasn't completely beyond help after all those years of getting everything she wanted, all of the time. It's a miracle she's any kind of normal at all. She could very well have turned batshit fucking insane like Sara Shirabuki."

"How do you know all this?"

Aidou rolled his eyes. "I know her just as well as you do. _If _not better. For some incomprehensible reason, you all shit yourselves when Ruka was born, and I thank whatever saved me from that epidemic daily."

He paused, straightened, and leaned forward, staring into the intercom screen.

"In fact," Aidou said slowly, "I refuse to talk to you about this any longer. I am so retired from this. You're back. I filled you in. She's your problem now."

Kain looked startled. "If I'm part of the problem, how am I supposed to help?"

"You helped screw her up. You figure it out," Aidou shrugged. "Stop treating her like she's completely helpless. She's not. Fact is, she can and will live, with or without you. Or me."

"I'm not antagonizing her intentionally, you know."

"I know," the blond sighed. "But you can't baby her, Akatsuki. She doesn't need a paladin. Really she doesn't _need_ anything, she can fend for herself now. But she wants someone's faith, someone's support. You finally told her how you felt, didn't you? That's a start. You're giving her the upper hand here, you're giving her some power. I mean, obviously, that's not good for you," Aidou broke into a grin, "But it's good for Ruka. You _love_ her, and you tell her she's worth loving. If she has even an ounce of respect for you, that knowledge should teach her a little more self-worth."

He paused.

"Maybe that's why she was so upset last night," Aidou pondered, tapping his chin. "Oh, Akatsuki, you're so efficient."

"Thanks," Kain said drily.

"I have to go," the blond man shrugged. "Kanae hasn't slept for three days, and Ichijou and I are taking turns annoying the crap out of her."

"At least you won't be here, annoying the crap out of me," Kain offered, and didn't really mean it. Conversations with Aidou had taken a sharp turn away from irritating, towards surprisingly enlightening.

The redhead ran a critical eye over his cousin as the blond man waved, and disappeared from the screen. Kain tossed the 'com down on the couch beside him, and leaned back into the cushions with a deep sigh.

Maybe he wasn't as sensitive to Ruka and he thought he was. Maybe he didn't know her as well as he thought he did. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back, massaging the bridge of his nose with one hand.

She was more complex than he had realized. She had more fears, and more insecurities, than he had ever dared to suspect.

Kain's shoulders relaxed. It pained him to know that Ruka believed so little in others, had so little faith in herself. His arms clenched. He wanted to reach out to her. He wanted to shake her. He wanted to explain to her just how _enough _she was.

A corner of his lip curled as he dropped his hand to his chest, where Ruka's head had lain a short time before.

He really was hopeless.

**-x-**

Ruka leaned against the closed the bedroom door behind her, and took a deep breath. She could hear their voices through the obstruction; Kain's deep baritone, soft and slow, a little raspy from sleep, Aidou's lilting tone, quick and cutting, and uncharacteristically stern. She had little doubt as to what subject that conversation would turn to — and she didn't want to talk about it. Not now.

She grabbed her discarded robe from the foot of the bed and walked through the double doors of the bathroom.

The bath room was a large, warm space. A shower stood against the left wall, its glass door painted in grey ombre, obstructing the interior from view. The walls of the shower were covered in black marble, and a rainfall shower head the size of a dinner plate hung at an angle on the wall; a large black iron rack stood opposite, out of the range of water spray, heavily loaded with thick towels and scented toiletries. On the far side of the room was a massive two-sink black marble counter, with the ends raised to accommodate free counter space. A mirror covered the wall from ceiling to the top of the counter, lit from above by gentle, warm light. And on the right side of the room — Ruka's objective: a porcelain tub sinking into the top platform of a set of black marble steps. A black triangular basket in one far corner held a variety of bubbles, salts and soaps; a small black iron rack held a sizeable number of towels.

She picked up a purple bottle from the basket and opened it, taking a deep inhale. And smiled. Lavender and rose. Heaven.

Turning on the water, Ruka deposited half the bottle into the stream under the tap, before replacing it into the basket. She unzipped her tattered dress, paused to look at it in distaste, and promptly threw it in the trash.

She turned to look at herself in the mirror, and winced. Patches of skin and chunks of hair were covered in dried blood. Kain's blood. She hadn't lost a drop. Ruka wiped at the streak on her forehead in irritation, and promptly stepped into the shower.

It smelled like cinnamon. Ruka couldn't suppress a small smile. She, like Aidou, preferred long, relaxing baths to start and end the day — but sometimes, Kain was nothing if not utilitarian. Only one of the towels in the stack in the shower had been removed. It hung outside the door on a hook, to be reused. One bottle of shampoo had been touched. He was so simplistic.

Ruka quickly worked out the tangles in her hair under the rainbath, and scrubbed the rust-red patches off her skin with a bar of French-milled soap. She turned off the water and pulled the second towel from the rack, rubbing gently at her streaming wet hair before tucking it around her body and exiting the shower. Her bath hadn't filled yet —the tub was massive — Ruka pulled the towel over her shoulders and donned her green robe. She walked back out into the bedroom, leaving the bathroom doors open, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

There was an intercom disc in this room, somewhere.

She leaned back across the bed and peered at the bedside table near the window. Sure enough, a sliver of silver gleamed in the moonlight. Ruka raised her knees and scooted across the bed, grabbing the disc and cradling it in her hands as she settled against the pile of pillows against the headboard.

She bit her bottom lip nervously as she waited for the other line to pick up. It took all of ten seconds for Rima to comply.

The screen opened to a dimly lit bedroom. Ruka could see the edge of a bed — long, wavy black hair on the black sheets, a white arm heavily bandaged and covered in tubes and needles, a dozen IV stands, a boy kneeling on the carpet, head buried in his arms — Ruka felt a pang in her chest at the sight of him, prostrate against the bedside, white knuckled hands clenching the duvet. Then, suddenly, screen rotated away from the scene. Rima's face appeared, the picture of exhaustion.

"Ruka," the blonde girl sounded almost surprised. "You're up already? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Ruka exhaled, pulling her wet, honey hair over one shoulder. Rima raised an eyebrow.

"You look tired."

"You do, too."

"Never mind me. How are you feeling?

"I feel fine, thank you."

"How's Kain?"

"I'm not sure," Ruka frowned. "I think...he's alright. I patched him up as best I could. He...slept for a while."

"Good. He took three bullets for you." Rima's expression was almost puzzled. "I watched him do it."

Ruka grimaced.

"I don't know what you did to deserve him," the pigtailed girl shrugged.

"I don't know, either."

Rima, slightly taken aback, leaned back in her chair.

"Where's Shiki?" Ruka said quietly. Rima blinked, surprised.

"He's — taking a nap. He's tired."

"How long was he out there?"

"All night," Rima's voice tightened. "He wouldn't let me take over. He made me come back as soon as I evacuated your guards."

"Ah," said Ruka, a hint of a smile on her lips. Rima frowned, and contemplated Ruka for a moment.

"Kazuki Kadoma and Seiya Tsuga were injured," she said finally. "Shiki wanted me to stay here and take care of them."

The brunette sighed. "I thought that was her I saw on the bed."

"Seiya's very severely wounded. Kazuki's been there all day. Shiki couldn't get him to leave; he fell asleep half an hour ago."

Ruka nodded dumbly.

"When they hit Seiya last night — when Kazuki saw her fall, he went insane. When he woke up, we had to drug him to calm him down. He was inconsolable."

"That's a surprise," said the brunette. "Seiya's been in love with him for a while, hasn't she? He's never done anything about it."

"How did you feel, Ruka?" Rima fixed Ruka with her piercing gaze. "When you saw Kain bleeding. What were you thinking?"

Ruka lowered her eyes, drawing her knees to her chest. Rima sighed.

"Seiya hasn't regained consciousness yet. Her wounds still haven't closed." The blonde paused. "I don't mean to be abstruse, Ruka. But when things like this happen, you should really think."

"I do think," Ruka replied finally, frowning. "I just — I don't mean to be ungrateful."

"What do you mean?"

Ruka sighed, running a hand through her wet hair.

"Sometimes — when Akatsuki does things like this. It's too much."

Rima cocked her head. "I'm not following."

"It's like you said," the brunette said slowly, eyes averted, "Last night, he took three bullets for me. Because he thought I was in danger. Because at the idea that I might be hurt, Akatsuki forgets himself. His own safety becomes immaterial. I take precedence over everything."

"And that scares you?"

"I know he probably saved my life," Ruka sighed. "He's done it before. He puts himself in danger without hesitation. And that kind of behavior — isn't that terrifying? The feelings behind actions like these. He doesn't say anything — he never says anything — but the intensity, I can feel it. It feels...suffocating."

"I see," the blonde nodded slowly.

Ruka shook her head. "I'm not that weak. One shot wouldn't have killed me, not at all. But he treats me like I'm glass."

"You are important to him, Ruka," Rima frowned.

"That's just it. I don't want to be that important to anybody. I don't want him to risk his life for me. It feels like a burden. I don't want that weight. I'd rather take the bullet than see him go so far to protect me. But because I don't want him to be hurt...because I don't want to be anyone's precious thing."

The brunette buried her face in her knees. "I'm awful, Rima. I'm so ungrateful. He almost died last night...I don't understand it. I don't think I can ever make someone my absolute priority. I don't think I can place someone else's safety, or even their needs, and their wants, above mine. Isn't that terribly selfish?"

"Yes," Rima replied without hesitation. "It is."

"I don't know what to do," Ruka mumbled into her lap.

The blonde girl looked at her for a few long, silent moments.

"These feelings and thoughts you're having," she said finally, "I think you should listen to them, carefully."

"I think," said Ruka, "I should talk to Kanae."

Rima raised a brow. "Kanae?"

"Yes. Can you connect me?"

Rima reached down to type on her keypad, then paused.

"Are you sure? She's in a very diluted derivation of your situation."

"I'm certain."

The blonde paused for a moment, contemplating the request.

"Alright," Rima said finally, keying in three numbers. "Just — tread carefully, Ruka. It's a touchy subject."

She vanished from the screen.

A few short beeps, and a different face appeared. The picture was tilted upwards, towards a heart-shaped face on a girl with long, sleek, inky black, and unsettling white eyes. The girl glanced up — she was reclined on a couch, a thick crochet blanket tucked around her waist, Austen in her hand — and blinked in surprise.

"Ruka," said Kanae Kotonami, dropping the book and reaching forward to grab the intercom. "My God. How are you?"

"I'm doing alright," Ruka breathed a sigh of relief. The black-haired girl looked thoroughly unconvinced.

"You're locked in a suite with Kain?"

"Rima tell you?"

"Mmm," the girl on the other side replied. "She called Aidou, Takuma and I on Monday. We're on your floor."

"Fantastic," said Ruka.

"Were you injured last night? They got to Komaki. The beasts."

"No," Ruka sighed, rubbing her neck. "But Akatsuki was. Shot by a hunter's gun."

"_God_. I knew they would get hunter's equipment. Nobody ever listens to me. How many times?"

"Three."

"Ah," said Kanae, twisting a long, inky lock around a thin white finger. "And, how many, may I ask, were in your defense?"

"I wish you wouldn't."

"Then I won't," the black-haired girl replied. "But I'm glad you called. I was beginning to _die_ in here. The only people who talk to me are Rima, Aidou, and Takuma. Rima doesn't have time to chat, Aidou is unmanageable, and Takuma's built himself a play fort from bookshelves. I may attempt to kill him, in the near future."

Ruka waved a hand to interrupt. "I called to ask you something, actually."

"But of course."

"I wanted to ask you about...Azuma."

"You want to ask me about your brother?" white eyes fixed on Ruka in puzzlement. "Why?"

"You're going to marry him."

Kanae gave Ruka a very flat look. "Yes. That is, I believe, the idea behind an engagement."

"How long have you been engaged for, now?"

The black-haired girl leaned back against her pillows, and put a finger to her chin. "Hmmm. I think we're pushing seven years now. I've been putting off the blood contract, though, but Azuma was really irritated that I had to stay here this week, so I'm to hop on a train to the estate as soon as we get out and sign it. So I guess there's no escaping it now."

Ruka smiled. "I've always wanted a sister."

"Ruka, that is the only reason I ever agreed to this engagement. Now, if only Rima would just give up on Shiki and marry Hizuki or something."

Ruka's lip curved at Kanae's sardonic tone.

"Why did you agree, really, though?"

Kanae raised a perfect black eyebrow.

"Because my father and my brother told me to."

"_Kanae._"

The black-haired girl sighed in exasperation. "Ruka, really. What do you want me to say? I didn't expect it to be the real thing. And you know Azuma, he's _your _brother. And he's _perfect_. Everybody since the dawn of time has collectively agreed that Azuma is perfect."

"What do you think of him?"

"Does it matter what I think of him? He's smart, and polite and charming and kind; he's well-born, wealthy; he's terribly handsome and terribly tall, and, let's face it, he has really fantastic hair. I can't imagine I could do better — though, I can't say for sure whether he would take three, or at the very least two, bullets for me in the face of a horde of ravenous beasts."

"_Kanae_," Ruka frowned. "Be serious for a moment, will you? I know Azuma dotes on you."

"Does he," Kanae rolled her white eyes.

"Excessively so."

"_Excessively_," Kanae repeated pointedly. "He sends me fresh flowers every evening. He writes me every week. He sends me some grandiose present or another at least twice a month. I don't know where I'm going to put them anymore. He never drops in unannounced, but he'll send a note up to my door to ask permission to see me on weekends. Yes, you think that's gallant, but Komaki just _laughs_. It's embarrassing, the displays. I don't know how you live with him, Ruka. It's ridiculous."

"How do you think he feels about this?"

"Oh, I'd imagine he's quite proud of himself."

"No," Ruka sighed. "How do you think he feels about your attitude?"

"My attitude?" Kanae looked up, and smiled. "Oh. _I _see."

"What?"

"This is about Kain."

"No," Ruka snapped, and blushed. "It's not. I'm just —"

"Come now, Ruka. I don't think you called to psychoanalyze my relationship with your brother," Kanae rolled her eyes. "You want to know how Kain feels. You want to know how Azuma feels."

Ruka sighed, leaning back.

"I thought you might understand my situation," she frowned, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "I could have asked Rima, but she and Shiki are utterly in sync. With you, though...Azuma is devoted to you, and you always act very indifferent towards him. Like you don't want him."

"Don't I?" Kanae shrugged. "I guess that's a fair assessment. He does grate on the nerves."

"If Azuma took a bullet for _you_, how would you feel?"

"Oh, Azuma would never take a bullet for me. It would muss his clothes."

"You're being incredibly obstinate."

"Am I?" Kanae frowned. "Alright. Maybe this can be more eye-opening than you thought."

The black haired girl twisted her blanket in one hand, rolled her eyes to the ceiling, and spoke.

"Azuma's gestures," Kanae said, resting her chin her intertwined hands, "They're sweepingly romantic, grandiose things. To everyone else, it looks like Azuma lavishes his time and money and attention on me. But he doesn't do these things to win my affection, or my approval. Your brother dotes on me as a matter of obligation and expectation. He does things very publicly, so everyone can see what a good fiancé he is. None of it is really sincere, Ruka."

Ruka frowned, pulling her knees up to her chest. "It doesn't look that way."

"Yes, he's very good."

"You sound miserable," she remarked. Kanae snorted.

"Miserable? Please. He treats me like I'm a prize he won in a bidding war. Like I'm something to show off, and then put back on the shelf. I hate it. I'm not miserable, I'm annoyed."

"Do you love him?"

"Are you going to tell him if I say no?"

"Be honest."

Kanae opened her mouth to offer what would probably be a very sarcastic reply, but the other girl's stern look stopped her. The black-haired girl's eyes shifted, her gaze skirting past Ruka.

"Do I love him," she sighed. "I don't know. I'd rather not."

"What do you mean?"

"Azuma is too perfect. He scares me. He's so many things, he's so much to everyone all the time. People look up to him, people idolize him, people love to be around him. And I should feel so lucky, because your father picked me to be the one who gets to _marry _Azuma. But I don't. I would destroy him if I could."

"What do you mean?"

"In truth, I'm terribly jealous of him. I want to bring him down. I want him to slow down. I want him to put me first. I want his undivided attention, and I want him to want me as much as everyone else wants him, and I don't want to share him. It feels wrong to want these things, and I know I shouldn't want them. I am never going to ask him for the things I want, because it would ruin us both. I don't deserve your brother, Ruka. I am far from being good enough for him. I want to break him down until he is as imperfect as I am. When I am around Azuma, I become ugly and selfish and greedy and needy, I try to get him to notice me by being the only person who doesn't pay any respect to him, I become so small. I hate it. I can't stand to look at him."

Kanae stopped.

"Maybe this is how Kain feels," she said, voice hoarse. "Maybe this is how anyone who ever falls in love with a Soen feels. I don't know, Ruka."

She looked up.

"So am I like you? Or am I like Kain? Am I denying my feelings because I think I'm not worthy of him, or am I silently pining after someone who does not love me back? In your story, who am I? Who is Azuma? You, or Kain?"

Kanae relaxed at the conflicted expression on Ruka's face, and smiled.

"Very enlightening," she said. "Think about it, Ruka. Maybe you're more like me than you believed."

"I don't know, Kanae."

"I think you do," the black-haired girl said gently. "Rima's probably being very neutral about this, but I think you know what your feelings are, and what your decision is. You're just trying to find some answers for yourself — such as, why you've kept this at bay for so long, or how you can even face him after so much time. Your only real challenge is making peace with yourself. And in my opinion, it's just silly."

Kanae leaned back against the arm of her couch, picking up her discarded copy of _Emma. _

"Do yourself a favor. I know you don't hear this very often — but think about how he might feel, for once. This isn't just Kain steamrolling along, you know. You're doing nothing to dissuade him. In fact, I'd say you're encouraging him."

Ruka sighed, running a hand over her exhausted face.

"I don't — I don't know, Kanae."

"Well, if you've been trying to reject him, I must say you're doing a fabulously awful job of it."

"I just —" Ruka rubbed her forehead, frustrated. "What should I be saying to him? No, I don't think I love you, but would you kindly go on as if I hadn't said that? I like him around, Kanae. I've always had him around. I want him to stay with me. I'm selfish, too."

"You can't keep him as a pet," the black haired girl peered over the cover of her book critically. "He's a person, too. If you're not going to return his feelings, sooner or later, you're going to have to let him go. You can't expect his life to revolve around you forever. "

Ruka frowned. "Well, that's the thing."

"Oh?"

"I really called to ask you how you dealt with Azuma's attention. How you dealt with the devotion. Last night...I don't know if I can ever understand how Akatsuki can be so selfless. I can't understand how he can forget himself. "

Kanae smiled.

"Well, I can't quite offer you the allegorical explanation you want. But I think I can translate."

The black-haired girl paused, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"You know what the saying is: the impulse to protect is the noblest part of love. Kain protects you because he loves you, because you are precious to him. He disregards his own safety because he does not see how precious he is to you."

"I don't think —" Ruka frowned. "I think you're rushing to conclusions."

"If I'm wrong, then why are you so concerned for him?" Kanae grinned. "When you love somebody, you cherish them most of all. But when someone loves you, you learn to value yourself in return. If you understand this, and understand Kain's actions and his feelings, it won't seem so terrifying. Easy, yes?"

She paused.

"Oh, I forgot. I haven't even answered your first question. Impolite of me."

"My first?"

"About Azuma," Kanae shrugged. "Yes, I suppose I do love him. And it's the most miserable, lonely feeling."

"I think you're underestimating him, Kanae," Ruka looked up, a small smile on her lips. "I'll speak to him."

"Don't bother," Kanae waved a hand carelessly. "I've long given up that battle. Azuma and I are unsalvageable. But you — take this time to think things through. Talk to Rima. Hell, talk to Aidou. You clearly don't want to give Kain up — at least on some level, you care for him, and you want him. And his feelings are not even a matter of question. But you two can't go on like this forever. You can't keep dancing around each other. Kain took three bullets for you last night, Ruka; I'm sure he was happy to do it. Men like that don't come courting every day. And they don't get treated the way you treat him. Honestly, I really don't know what you did to deserve him."

Ruka sighed, resting her chin on her knees.

"I don't know, either."

**-x-**

Kain knocked on the bedroom door, on the brink of impatience.

"Ruka? Are you in there?"

He'd been standing there for a good ten minutes, now. He needed to take a shower, badly. And Ruka hadn't left the bathroom for over an hour.

"Ruka."

Kain sighed. And opened the door.

Ruka was asleep on the bed, curled down into the headboard, her cheek resting gently against the pillows. Her hair was sticking to her face and neck, still wet; she was clad in little more than her robe, a discarded intercom beside her. Kain exhaled, walking slowly into the room, crouching down next to the girl. She was exhausted, that much had been clear; there had been circles under her eyes when she had woken. He raised a hand to brush a piece of wet hair from her cheek, and paused. Her skin was ice cold.

Clearly Ruka believed she was impervious to illness.

Kain sighed deeply and ran a hand through his rumpled hair. Carefully, he slid an arm between her back and the headboard, and slowly pulled her towards him, almost cradling her in his lap as he reached to turn down the comforter. With a quick twitch of his wrist, he pulled the sheets back from the bed, and settled the girl back down, drawing the thick eiderdown over her sleeping form. Then, slowly, silently, he sat down on the edge of the bed beside her.

Ruka's tongue brushed over her lips, lightly wetting them as she inhaled. Kain leaned forward, reaching down and cradling her cheek in his hand, brushing the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip, his heart starting to beat at a dangerous tempo. He was surprised the sound wasn't waking her.

He moved his hand light over her forehead and pushed the wet hair from her face, and away from where it stuck to her neck. Kain's eyes caught on the white skin — the hollow at the junction of her neck and shoulder, exposed to his sight; cradled against the pillows, her head leaning in the opposite direction. His breath hitched, amber orbs unmoving — he slowly crouched down over her, eyes fixed on the skin of Ruka's neck, and he could almost see the blood flowing bare millimeters beneath the surface —

Ruka stirred, shifting.

Kain jerked back, heart pounding. He swallowed slowly, shaking his head to clear his thoughts — what _the hell_ —

He rose to his feet rapidly, sparing the girl on the bed one last glance before ducking out the door.

**-x-**

Ruka was frustrated.

She grabbed the pages propped up against the piano and flipped them over, closing her eyes and she took deep, calming breaths.

She couldn't do _anything_ anymore.

There was need for distraction — that, she had decided, was certain — and with this goal in mind she had ventured down the soundproof hallway, tracking down a small auditorium, dimly lit and richly stocked. Half a dozen rows of red velvet seating were arranged in a decline away from the main door; a sparse chandelier bathed the room in warm, low light; the walls of the auditorium were covered in instruments, and a beautiful grand piano sat under a spotlight at the far end of the room. Several large bookshelves stood against the wall behind the piano, loaded with scores and anthologies, and Ruka had thought the whole arrangement to be extremely suitable to her needs. But now — the brunette sighed, flipping the first page of the score back to its proper face, settling her fingers back on the polished ivory keys. Now, she couldn't even remember how to play.

Her grandmother had told her, once, that muscle memory was not enough for instrumental mastery. Ruka hated it when her grandmother was right.

_One, two, three; four, five, six..._

She ran her hands over the keys again, eyes fixed on the lines and dots on the page. The first page was simple enough — melody in the right hand, chords in the left — she reached up quickly to flip the second page, executed it well enough — then the run. Ruka growled in irritation as her fingers tripped over themselves —

_That's it._

She slammed her hands carelessly down onto the keys. The discordant result of her near-tangible frustration echoed noisily around the room.

A small click, and the door closed. She didn't even bother to look up. Ruka dropped her elbows onto the keys, resting her forehead on her hands. The piano rattled its jarring discontent.

"What are you playing?" came Kain's voice, echoing somewhere from halfway down the carpeted path, cut between the velvet seats. Ruka turned slightly, peering through her hair at him.

"Chopin's _Nocturne in E-flat major_, opus 9, number 2," she replied dispassionately. "I'm not playing it, I'm butchering it."

"Ah," she could see the small smile on his lips. "_Loathe to Depart_, isn't it? It wasn't so bad."

Ruka offered an unladylike snort as her response.

"Here," he said, nudging her over. Ruka obeyed, sliding over on the piano bench as Kain sat down, position his right hand over the appropriate keys.

"Hanabusa plays better than I do," he said, peering at the music. "I think it goes like this."

Ruka stared at him blankly as he executed the run with little to no effort, finishing it off with flair. Without a word, she stood, and marched to the first row of seats, plopping down and staring at him expectantly. He stared back.

"Well," she said, a hint of annoyance in her voice, "Go on."

Kain smiled and closed the lid over the keys. Swiveling around the bench, he stood and moved to the wall, plucking an ornate twelve-string guitar from the middle of the room. Turning, he walked back towards Ruka, sitting down on the red velvet seat next to her.

"Hanabusa plays piano," Kain said, plucking the strings carelessly as he tuned, "I play strings, mostly."

"Ah," said Ruka, watching his fingers move gently over the neck of the guitar.

"What do you want to hear?"

She leaned back, and contemplated the question.

"I don't know," Ruka replied, eyes downcast. "Anything, I suppose."

"Hmmm," he said, and plucked at the strings. Ruka closed her eyes and slid down in her seat, leaning the base of her head against its curved backside. The notes that gently floated towards her were light and melancholy, an apologetic twang, as Kain's fingers danced over the heart of the guitar. Then, suddenly, his soft, low voice drifted through the space between them, like a slowly rumbling whisper, catching her breath in her throat.

_The stitches in your winter clothes, your cello bows,_

_We stole your hair to make them._

_We're sorry for the iron shoes we nailed to you,_

_And stuck you in the rain_

_And then you sprinted away, sprinted away to where, I don't know_

_God is moving in your bloodstream where the crossbeats aren't so slow._

Ruka swallowed, lifting one hand to massage her suddenly throbbing throat. But another hand caught it before it landed — Ruka's eyes snapped open. The guitar lay silent as Kain curled his hand around Ruka's, brushing his thumb gently over her knuckles before slowly pressing his lips to the tip of every delicate finger. Ruka froze, her breath rattling in her ribcage, her eyes fixed on his red hair.

"I'm sorry," he murmured gently against her fingertips, "That I upset you last night."

Ruka closed her eyes as his breath brushed over her skin, biting her lip, trying to resist the quivering feeling growing maliciously in her stomach. His lips moved upwards, back to the roots of her fingers, over her knuckles, and he was pressing kisses to the inside of her hand now, on ever y line of her palm — his lips lingered against her wrist, the tip of tongue probing the delicate veins under her skin.

"I didn't mean to," Kain exhaled against the crook of her hand, closing his eyes. "I know you're not weak, Ruka. I know you can protect yourself. I know you're independent, I _know _that. So walk where you can walk alone; but if you can't, let me carry you. You want to fight your demons alone, alright. But let me do for you the small thing, what I can do for you. I can be selfish, too."

He drew away, squeezing her hand gently.

"I'm sorry. I'll stop, if you like."

Kain straightened silently, and looked at Ruka. She was staring at him, her expression conflicted, her body tense — then, suddenly, without warning, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.

The aim was clumsy — her kiss landed on the corner of his mouth, but he turned, almost instinctively, to catch it. Then, almost as suddenly as she had moved, he stood, breaking contact, the guitar in his lap falling to the ground in a dissonant _clang _as he stared at her in shock.

"What are you doing?"

Ruka rose weakly, pushing herself to an upright position. Slowly, she took two small, silently steps towards him, and drew her arms around his neck.

"Thank you," she said into the crook of his collar.

He paused, then slowly wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer, lifting her off the floor. Ruka's breath hitched as her body pressed against his, her the tip of her nose less than an inch away from his bridge, her hands clutching his shoulders, arms braced against his chest. She raised her hands, brushing her fingers against the short hairs on his neck, and cupped his face, the pads of her thumbs pushing gently against his cheekbones. He closed his eyes as she leaned forward, and kissed him again.

The touch was light — almost imperceptibly light — the barest of pressure keeping their lips together. Kain removed one hand from her waist, tightening his grip with his other arm, and tangled his fingers into the hair at the base of her neck, pulling her down towards him. The kiss deepened rapidly — Ruka's lips, parted for breath, offered no resistance as he slid his tongue past them, pushing lightly against her teeth, skirting the barest of touches over her skin. She tightened her grip on his face as she responded with equal eagerness, her tongue dancing against his, pushing, teasing; he removed his hand from her hair, tucking it under her knee for support, his thumb skirting against the skin under the hem of her skirt —

A light moan escaped from Ruka's throat, and Kain's self-control snapped.

In one swift motion he moved, slamming Ruka's back against the wall, bracing her hips with his own. She grunted lightly on impact but didn't protest; his kisses changed, no longer gentle and pliant, but rough and desperate as they bruised her lips. His hands had free range now — he hooked one of her legs around his waist as he pressed his chest to hers, running his fingers under her skirt, over the skin on her thigh — Ruka moaned again as his thumb brushed against the junction between her legs, his other hand pressed firmly against the curve of her waist —his mouth moved, pressing fast, furious kisses along the side of her neck, nibbling on the skin of her shoulder —

"Stop," she gasped suddenly, her hands moving to push him away, "Akatsuki, stop."

Kain obeyed, his hands frozen in place, the bridge of his nose pressed against the skin of her collarbones, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath.

"Am I hurting you?"

Ruka shook her head, struggling to plant her feet back on the ground, her fingers still in a vice grip on his shoulders. He released her gently, backing away, his breath uneven as he ran a hand through his unruly red hair, amber eyes raking over her rumpled appearance. Ruka braced her back against the wall, panting lightly, pulling her crumpled skirt down, skin flushed pink. She didn't look at him, her eyes averted downwards, her pale hands clenched and pressed firmly against the wall. Kain stared uncomprehendingly at her stiff posture, amber eyes conflicted.

"I'm sorry," he said gently. Ruka clamped a hand over her mouth, eyes tearing. He reached a hand forward to steady her —

She slapped it away, hard. Eyes wide, almost as if she were in shock — Ruka stared at him wordlessly.

Kain flinched, dropping his hand to his side. Then, quietly, angrily;

"I don't understand you at all."

He turned and marched back towards the exit, pausing to pick the guitar up from the ground. Setting it down against one leg of the grand piano, Kain moved silently up the walkway, and shut the door firmly, loudly behind him.

Ruka crumpled to the floor, crouched in a ball, and hid her face behind her knees.

**-x-**

The intercom on the piano was ringing, again.

Ruka slowly unfurled from the wall. She didn't know how long she had been hiding there, how much time had passed since she —

Biting her lip, Ruka raised one hand and swiped the silver disk from the gleaming black wood of the piano. She knew who would be calling.

Blue eyes greeted her, concern blossoming in the blond vampire's face and he looked her over. Ruka wanted to laugh. She was a disaster — her hair was sticking to her face, where the tears had dried; her eyes were red and puffy, and she didn't even want to know what her rumpled clothes were conveying to her cousin.

"Hey, Ruka," Aidou said cautiously, "I wanted to talk to you."

"Hanabusa, please." Ruka fell back against the wall and buried her face in her hands. "Don't ask me what I'm doing, I don't know."

"He's furious, you know," the blond said calmly, his face close to the screen. "Mostly he's mad at himself for losing it. But I'm sure he's at least a little mad at you for being a _bitch_."

"I hate you."

"I know why you're doing it," the blue-eyed man replied softly, fixing her with an even gaze. "You kiss him because you want to."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," she snapped.

"You kiss him because you want to, but you don't want it because you love him. You want it because of the hormones. Because it's Thursday. Because you feel small and guilty."

"Fuck you, Hanabusa."

"Stop it, Ruka. I'm being serious. Stop being so defensive, and listen to me. Remember when you would listen to me all the time?"

"Why did I ever do that?"

"Because I know you better than anyone."

"Do you?"

"Yes. I do."

Ruka didn't reply. Aidou frowned, leaning into the screen.

"You're teasing him. You're baiting him. What are you trying to accomplish?"

"I don't know, Hanabusa. Please stop."

"No," the blond man said affirmatively. "Okay. I think there's something you're not quite understanding here. Listen to me for a second here. And don't speak until I'm finished.

You and I, we're similar. You know we are. We grew up in a cutthroat society, and we navigated it together. We watched out for each other for six decades. Social games, they were never Akatsuki's thing. But we learned them, and we learned how to play them expertly. We're manipulative. We toy with people's thoughts and feelings like they're worthless. We're too experienced to be naive, but we're too jaded to believe in honesty. I know why you're confused, because for people like us, pure things like love become a joke. When we're bored we fuck around, and we can touch each other, you and me, without thinking anything of it, without feeling. But Akatsuki's not like that, Ruka.

Akatsuki doesn't do anything he doesn't mean. When he finally realized he was in love with you, he stopped sleeping around. He stopped doing all the pointless things that people like us do just to pass the time. With things like other people's feelings, he's sensitive to them. He cares about them. He doesn't play games with people, Ruka. And you can't treat him like you treat me, or any other boy you've ever tangled with, because he's not like us. He's a good person. And when you touch him, whether or not you mean it, he believes you.

I know you talked to Kanae this morning. She talked to me, too. And you know what? I've never seen Kanae touch Azuma, not once. She doesn't touch him because she thinks he's like Akatsuki, she thinks she would bastardize him. But the difference there is I would laugh in your face if you ever tried to tell me Azuma's never fucked a girl and never spoken to her again.

The other difference is that _you know _what Akatsuki's like. You know him. And you still do these things, Ruka. What are you doing?"

There was a long pause, as Ruka stared, almost frightened, at the expression on her cousin's face. Suddenly, she snatched the intercom from the ground and pulled it close.

"I don't _know_, Hanabusa!" Ruka exploded, "Everybody keeps asking me, I don't know!"

"Don't you?" he challenged, unshaken. "I think you know exactly what you're doing, Ruka Soen, I don't believe you for a second. You've haven't made a single move without intentions, not for the last hundred years."

Ruka scowled. "What do you want from me?"

"Maybe a little bit of honesty, for once," Aidou snapped back. "Sometimes I really fucking hate you, you know that? You don't give a fuck what you do to people, do you? Well you're going to have to give a fuck, because this is _Akatsuki _we're talking about. _You can not treat him like that. _I don't know if you've forgotten, but he's not there for you to play with."

"Goddammit, Hanabusa," Ruka grit, pressing a fist to her mouth. "I know that. I screwed up. Okay?"

"No." Aidou stared at her evenly, unfazed. "You're not stupid, Ruka. And you don't fool me."

"I'm _jealous_ of him. Alright?"

Aidou paused, blinking.

"You're jealous."

Ruka sighed.

"All those things you just said — I want to be them, too. When he's near me — I want to be near him. I want to be a good person, too, Hanabusa — but all I can do is tear him down! I tear him down. It makes me feel like less of a horrible, awful, ugly person —"

She stopped, and blanched. "Oh _God._ I'm just like her. I'm just like Kanae."

Ruka collapsed onto the closed lid of the piano, her hair spilling over her face as she hid her head in her arms. The blond man on the screen frowned deeply as he look at her, worry evident on his sharp features.

"Kanae's not a bad person, Ruka," Aidou's tone softened. "Neither are you. Neither am I. Kanae is in love with Azuma, and she doesn't want to taint who she thinks he is. She doesn't want to hurt him. But if you're the same, why do you want to bring Akatsuki down so badly? Why are you willing to do what she isn't?"

"Because — Azuma and Kanae aren't _working_. Because they almost hate each other, they're so blind."

He looked startled. "Because —?"

"I want him to see," Ruka sighed, shaking her head. "It's not fair if he doesn't know. I want him to see what kind of person I really am."

"Why?"

She didn't respond. He paused for a moment, then ventured:

"Are you scared he won't love you if he thought you were different?"

Ruka sat, silently, on the piano bench, for a long, silent minute. Then, slowly, she nodded, fingers clenching in fists, covering her eyes.

"Well, I don't think that's true, Ruka. You've been showing him all week, haven't you? You've been trying to warn him."

Silence.

"He hasn't changed his mind, you know. Not for a second. Not even now."

Silence.

"Well?"

Ruka's tense shoulders twitched. Then, slowly, so slowly, loosened. She sighed, wearily, sliding her hands down to rub her cold arms.

"I need to apologize, don't I?"

Aidou relaxed visibly.

"I can't believe you're even asking that question."

Ruka scowled. "You are _unbelievable_."

"I am beyond belief, aren't I?" Aidou preened, grinning. "I helped unravel this cosmic puzzle, at the very least. I feel like I deserve a prize. Do they have Nobel Prizes for things like this?"

"We keep apologizing to each other," Ruka frowned, running a hand through her tangled honey-gold hair. "We spend so much time being sorry."

Aidou shrugged. "Because neither of you ever learn."

**-x-**

Rima was skeptical. Shiki was asleep on her shoulder — his crop of dark hair was stark against Rima's neck, sticking at odd angles into her face — and the girl, all flat-eyed and unconvinced, still managed to look all types of demeaning.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Aidou groaned, every kind of irritated. "How many times do I have to tell you?"

"And you didn't bully her or anything? You just_ fixed it_."

"I did," Aidou frowned. "Don't I get any applause?"

"I suppose," Rima sighed, examining her nails. "Somebody should tell Kanae."

"She's asleep," Aidou informed her. "She was exhausted."

"Of course. She hasn't slept in three days."

"I think it's the barrier," the blond man mused, "I think it wore her out."

"Why, what's she been doing?"

"Warping the sutras, cutting holes in the perimeter, generally antagonizing the hunters. Just for fun."

"Oh boy," Rima said with no enthusiasm. "Remind me to thank her for the earful we'll hear in the morning."

Aidou shrugged, and gazed past the two controllers, into the bedroom. The IVs were gone; the slim figure in the bed was the only occupant now. Black hair had been tightly braided, and a slight flush had returned to the girl's icy skin. Aidou smiled.

"Seiya Tsuga's better?"

"She was conscious for a while," Rima remarked dryly. "The hole in her chest finally closed. She's not fully healed yet, so she has to stay here."

"Where'd Kazuki Kadoma go?"

"Back outside. He took over for Shiki."

"Nice kid, he is."

"Yes," Rima deadpanned. "And practical, too. He asked her to marry him less than an hour ago."

Aidou blinked. "You're kidding."

"I'm not. He called his father right before she woke up. I think the Kadoma are negotiating a blood contract with the Tsuga right now."

"That escalated quickly," Aidou whistled. Rima raised an eyebrow.

"I could say the same for your party."

Aidou rolled his eyes, and crossed his arms with a petulant huff. Rima settled back into her chair, patting the still sleeping Shiki gently on the head, the silence penetrated only by the soft breathing of her two wards. Rima watched Aidou carefully; he had his eyes closed, a ghost of a smile on his face, looking reasonably pleased with himself. She opened her mouth to speak, and suddenly stopped, remembering something. A lot of somethings. Rima frowned, and glanced back over the older vampire, lounging on his couch as if he had just arranged for world peace.

"And you? Are you alright with this?"

The blond man looked startled, then hesitant. Then, slowly, Aidou leaned forward, picking up a book from the coffee table, tapping thoughtfully on the spine.

_The Beautiful and the Damned._

"Sure," he smiled. "Why wouldn't I be?"

**-x-**

_I make the most of all the sadness,_

_You be a bitch because you can._

_You try to hit me just to hurt me so you leave me feeling dirty_

_Because you can't understand._

_We're going down, and you can see it too._

_We're going down, and you know that we're doomed._

_My dear, we're slow dancing in a burning room._

* * *

**_A/N:_ **I am committed to updating faster than/at the same rate as the manga. Here's _Thursday_, on Thursday.

Please don't ask me where this story fits into canon. I would have said "during Rido/before Sara", but I brought her into the equation in this chapter. It's mostly because I think Sara's motivated by part spoiled entitlement and part loneliness, and for me, Ruka is a character that had a lot of potential to go that direction if nobody had kept her grounded. Kain and Aidou being the grounding parts.

The italicized lyrics are from _Slow Dancing in a Burning Room _by John Mayer and _Broken Horse _by the Freelance Whales, the latter of which I highly recommend.


End file.
